One of the things I like about living in Texas is watching the changing cast of birds visiting my bird feeders with the change of seasons. Central Texas is right on one of the four North American migratory bird flyways, where migrating birds join together to form great "bird rivers" in the sky, passing over the same geographic locations at about the same time each year. Every year we can look forward to greeting some old friends, as well as getting acquainted with some new ones. There is a vicarious pleasure in imagining the distant lands visited by these tiny travelers.
i'm not really a birder. I'm a retired science teacher with a background in microbiology, and an amateur naturalist by inclination. I've taken classes in birding, and I have a collection of field guides, but I'm pretty lax about keeping a life list. However, I do like watching birds, and learning more about their behavior.
Ten years ago, my husband and I bought a piece of heavily wooded land in South Central Texas. Over the years, we've spent a lot of weekends camping out here, but not being year-round residents, we missed seeing some very interesting happenings in nature. One of the first things we did, once we retired and moved into our home in the woods was to set up a birdbath, and hang up birdfeeders that can be seen from our kitchen window. Two years ago, I discovered Project Feeder Watch, a Citizen Science project of Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, that involves observing the kinds and numbers of bird species visiting my birdfeeders during the winter months. It has given us a window into the changing cast of bird species we see during the year.
Have fun watching birds and help scientists.
Project Feeder Watch is just one of the Citizen Science projects of the Cornell Laborarory of Ornithology. These projects offer a way for those of us who like observing the natural world to actually contribute to scientific knowledge. Over 200,000 people contribute data to Cornell's projects every year, accumulating data used by scientists to track bird migration, how birds are affected by habitat loss, pollution, and disease, to track bird migration and document changes over time of bird populations. The results are used to help protect species that are decreasing. Cornell's Citizen Science Projects offer something for everyone, and include e-Bird, Nest Watch, Nest Cam, Celebrate Urban Birds, Pigeon Watch, and the Great Backyard Bird Count.
You don't need to be an expert to participate, or even much equipment . Cornell will send you a nice information packet, and their website is full of useful information on bird identification , attracting and feeding birds . My Feeder Watch site is pretty basic- several feeders and a birdbath. It is important to choose a site that is easy for you to observe, and mine is visible from my kitchen windows. I did have to get a raccoon baffle, after raccoons learned how to climb up a tree, pull a birdfeeder up by the chain, knock it down and feast on the spilled seeds. It also takes care pesky squirrels. We keep our cats indoors to keep them from killing the birds. As you can see, they like to join me in birdwatching from their places on the kitchen table, and a family of American Crows is sure to get their attention.
All I have to do is set aside two consecutive days each week from November through early April to do observations and count birds. I don't have to spend the entire day watching- it can be as little as an hour a day. I report the largest number of birds of each species I saw over a consecutive two day observation period, the amount of time I spent watching each day, and the weather conditions during the two day period.
On the Feeder Watch website, there are a number of features that allow you to explore the data. You can see your own count results from current and past years, see what birds are being reported in your area, look at maps that show current and past distribution of bird species, see maps of where other feeder watch sites are located, and more.
Making regular observations and counts is giving me a sense of what regular patterns in bird migration occur here. A highlight of January is the arrival of the Goldfinches, that brighten dreary winter days with spashes of yellow plumage. Their numbers peak in February, but by the end of the month they have moved on to their breeding territory, which includes most of the U. S. We ,however, are just slightly too far south, and only see them in winter. This lovely fellow is a Black Backed Lesser Goldfinch-
The winter of 2008-2009 is known as the "winter of the siskins". There was an irruption of Pine Siskins, and Feeder Watch participants recorded the largest movement of this small finch into the southern and eastern United States and southeastern Canada since the project began monitoring feeder birds in 1987. Irruptions are irregular winter movements of birds. The large numbers of Pine Siskins being seen in the Eastern U.S. in 2009 were thought to be due to a shortage of their normal winter food supplies in the forests of Canada. These little birds were all over our thistle feeder, in a flock of as many as 20 at time. This winter, I have only seen a few of them. Banding studies have shown that they have moved back to the Northeastern U.S.
March of 2010 brought us a flock of Wild Turkeys- eight hens and three toms. We have heard the toms gobbling in the woods, but this was the first time we had gotten a good look at them close up. The toms were magnificent with irridescent feathers that changed colors depending on the angle of the light- sometimes looking green and at other times cinnamon colored. They reminded me of richly dressed sultans in their silk robes out for a stroll with their harem. They returned almost every day from early March through mid-April. We were able to watch one of the toms display for the hens. While he strutted and fanned his tail, the hens ignored him and continued to searchfor food in the grass. Wild Turkeys are extremely wary. The slightest sound sends them running, so I had to photograph them through our screened windows.
This winter we seem to have a lot of Yellow Rumped Warblers. They are more interested in drinking water from the birdbath than in the feeders. Yellow Rumped warblers are just wintering here, until they return to their breeding territory in the northwest U.S. and in Canada.
Summer brings other visitors to our area, as neotropical migrants return. Warmer nights mean that we begin to hear the calls of the Chuck Will's Widows , who, like Whipoorwills sing continuously on early summer evenings. Their call really does sound like they are saying "Chuck Will's Widow". They are nocturnal, and so well camoflouged that once my dog and I startled one in the daytime sleeping right in the middle of a trail. If it hadn't flopped out of the way, I would never have seen it, because the feathers blend perfectly with the brown pine needles that litter our forest floor.
Ruby Throated Hummingbirds are also regular summer visitors here, and we love to watch their antics as they visit our sugar water feeders. They depart in the fall for Southern Mexico and Central America. Tiny but feisty, hummingbirds frequently buzz other hummingbirds that get too close to a favorite feeder. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, but you shouldn't add red food color to sugar water though because it is harmful to the birds. Just having some red on the feeder itself is sufficient. Once I even saw a hummer return over and over to the red fuel tank on our old Coleman camp stove. Of course, red tubular flowers like Salvias are even better than sugar water feeders. If you look closely, you can see a male sitting on a branch just above and to the right of the feeder.
In preparation for my favorite summer visitors, the Painted Buntings, I fill a feeder with millet seed. They aren't picky, even the cheapest grocery store kind will do. They arrive in early June, from their winter range in Southern Mexico and Central America. The males are so colorful it is hard to believe that they are real. The females are more subdued, camflouged in olive green to protect them while they are nesting. Painted Buntings have been declining for 35 years. Loss of habitat, parasitism by Cowbirds, and trapping for the cage bird trade in their winter range are all thought to be responsible.
Project Feeder Watch is already taking registrations for the 2011-2012 season. If you sign up by March 15th, you can get a calendar with lovely color pictures of birds. As Yeller Dog and others have been reporting, another easy way to get involved in Citizen Science and birds is the Great Backyard Bird Count . This year's count ends today, but you can check out the data on the website and find out what has been reported in your area and more. In this years's count, an amazing 39,264 checklists were submitted, and 5,801,781 birds were counted by in the U.S. and Canada. Amazing what Citizen Scientists can do!
What bird visitors are you seeing in your backyard? What are your favorite Citizen Science projects?
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Updated by loblolly at Mon Feb 21, 2011, 07:39:39 PM
As of 7:15 pm est , in the Great Backyard Bird Count there have now been 52,883 checklists submitted, a total of 532 species seen, and 7,038,532 birds counted!