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Bird Nerd

I have been into birding now since I have moved into the Jackalope House. A friend of mine has been part of Cornell University's Project FeederWatch for a few years now and talked about how much she loved counting the birds. I thought I wouldn't be interested, but then I got the feeder up and I was hooked on identifying and counting birds! For a small fee, they send you a neat poster with paintings of lots of different birds and some helpful information on how to do counts.

I have learned to identify many different kinds of birds as well as to keep a camera handy for when one comes by that I can't identify. I LOVE WhatBird's search engine. It does have some limitations though - it took me forever to find out that the cute little black and white bird that I kept seeing and could never get a picture of was a Dark Eyed Junco - fortunately they put pictures of birds up and the ones I was seeing were different from the painting that they featured.

It really helped me identify this fellow:

Common Grackle


A search and an inquiry to a biologist friend told me that this bird was NOT supposed to be in Wyoming for the winter. He must've missed his train out! I reported the sighting to the Project and yes! a rare bird sighting - very cool for a baby bird nerd like myself. You can go here and scroll down to see my pitiful picture and my name! LOOK! I AM FAMOUS! Or something.

Here are some more pictures that I took at my feeder this afternoon. It is just a small showing of what I get to see on a daily basis:


Northern Flickers



A Eurasian Collared Dove and a European Starling



House Finches - my most common visitors!


I am glad I went out and bought some suet today - the cold weather has turned these birds into little piggies - especially the Flickers, Woodpeckers and the Chickadees. It really does amaze me how much these birds can eat, but for the enjoyment that they provide it is worth every penny.

Comments

  1. dianne aJanuary 8, 2012 at 3:38 PM

    Yes it is worth every penny! And you are doing the environment a great service. Our songbirds are threatened by invasive species like the grackle, starling, and English sparrow who have more powerful beaks and swarm in massive flocks into feeding areas.Bless you for being a birder!Dianne

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