Great Backyard Bird Count

THIS weekend we participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. This is a national initiative to track bird populations and migrations. People all across the country count birds on a specified weekend and log their results through a website. We are very much "fledglings" at bird watching, and especially identification, so that we weren't able to log everything we saw as we really couldn't be certain of the species. To complicate matters, there was a sign right over our back garden in birdese that said: "Bird count in progress. Do not land here." These were the few that dared enter during this particular 30 minutes, that we were able to log:

• American crow
• Bluejay
• American robin
• Northern cardinal
• Mourning dove

The following are here all the time but were evidently log-shy:

• Carolina wren
• Carolina chickadee
• Northern mockingbird
• Hairy/downy woodpecker (can't decide which one it is)
• Yellow warbler
• Brown thrasher
• Some kind of sparrow - white-throated, I think

Before next year we have to set up a bird-table to tempt some more feathered friends to join us, and maybe our log will be a little more impressive.