The Great Backyard Bird Count

Every year in February, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology conducts the Great Backyard Bird Count. Click on the link above for more info. Novice and expert alike can birdwatch in any place or way they choose for as little as 15 minutes. They then submit their results to Cornell's site where you can search the data as you wish. It's lots of fun, and I've forgotten for the past few years. Thank goodness a co-worker reminded me in time to do it on the last day! I started out yesterday by just observing my backyard and the greenbelt beside it. The photo above is of the section of greenbelt beside my house. I watched for 45 minutes and saw more than I thought I would. Turkey vultures, yellow-rumped warblers (so cute!), robins, mockingbirds and a red-bellied woodpecker all made an appearance.

It was a perfect clear day, with temperatures in the 60's. It was so relaxing and wonderful, that I decided to walk to the canals near our house to see what I could find near the water and conservation areas. On the walk there, I managed to get a photo of the yellow-rumped warbler's famous rump. :)
The canals yielded much better results, and I walked up and down them before settling in for an hour to watch the wildlife around me. I'm so glad I found a way to so thoroughly enjoy nature in my own neighborhood! It was also rewarding to find out that I could identify many of the bird calls around me. This time there were some birds I could not identify, so I had to do the best I could. The GBBC site sent me a list of what I submitted...
Mallard - 6
Pied-billed Grebe - 3
Double-crested Cormorant - 4
Anhinga - 1
Great Blue Heron - 1
Great Egret - 2
Snowy Egret - 1
Little Blue Heron - 2
White Ibis - 3
Osprey - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Limpkin - 3
Mourning Dove - 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
American Robin - 3
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 20
Northern Cardinal - 1
Brown-headed Cowbird - 1

I even ran into some little girls who were tracking dinosaurs! I wished them luck, although I'm not sure there's a program that tallies those results. ;-) The limpkins were a TOTAL surprise. I've only ever seen 2 others in my adventures, and they seemed pretty secretive. They were great fun to watch. I'm now thinking of running a bird watching endeavor at the canals for our little village subdivision. So many of the people I've run into seem so woefully ignorant of the nature and abundance around them that I can't help but try to bring a little of it to them. I guess we'll see if I get the courage to do it and if anyone cares.

I'll end this with a shameless plug for my wonderful husband who looked so handsome in his graduation gear. :) I'm so proud of his achievements of graduating summa cum laude and being named outstanding senior!! YAY RON!