Great Backyard Bird Count

The boys and I had a wandering adventure on Saturday. We saw owls and hawks, did reconnaissance for future adventures, made a friend and pet a red corn snake!

But before I tell you about that, time is running out for another event you should know about.

If you like birds, have fifteen minutes today and are willing to enter a few pieces of data into an Internet database, I have an activity for you.

It's the Great Backyard Bird Count!

This event takes place every February. For four days, participants take at least fifteen minutes to count the birds in their backyard. They enter the number of each species they see into the GBBC website.

Today is the last day, so the boys and I set up a little observation station - laptop, field guides, notebook, coffee - in front of the patio door in our kitchen.

We recorded a couple of turkey vultures circling overhead, a tufted titmouse on our suet feeder and a juvenile downy woodpecker.

Normally, we have more birds in a fifteen minute period. I suspect the lack had something to do with our yard's version of the black death (our cat was out and about).

Matt snapped the photo on the right of one of our visitors.

What birds can you see?