[NorthernWinos]

For anyone interested in counting birds this weekend and sending your results in to partake in The Great Backyard Bird Count 2009....

Check it out....

[img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Owner/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-12.jpg[/img]http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

[img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Owner/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-13.jpg[/img][img]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Owner/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-14.jpg[/img]
[img]../../../images/uploads/20090212_074231_image_preview.png[/img]

[Jack on Rainy]

Thanks MW. Mary and I are birders and enjoy that activity everywhere we travel. It may even be a better activity than wine drinking - you can do it in the morning!

[hannabarn]

I don't know if this is unusual or not but I have never seen finches winter this far north. We have had finches and chickadees at our feeders all winter long.

[NorthernWinos]

Report them.......we always have Chickadees year round and have lots of Red Polls...as well as the Up Side Down birds [Nuthatches]....

Last year we had loads of Pine Grosbeaks and other nice birds to report...This year we are over run with Blue Jays and Wood Peckers....so no nice birds are around....Have a couple Blackbirds that wintered over.....Haven't seen the ring neck Pheasant in a few weeks...Dogs always chase it away.

No squirrels either...but the dogs chase them as well. They are probably happy in the field corn that is still standing around the homestead....we are sure there are lots of happy birds out there.

Neighbors are going to come and hunt for deer horns in the corn fields...probably lots of them out there waiting to puncture some farm tires.

[admiral]

Thanks NW! We will participate. We love our birds and wildlife. Have a good day.

[Jack on Rainy]

NW and Hannabarn,
We have finches winter here which is about 225 miles north of you(and some what west too). The ones we see most often are Goldfinches, but Purple have been regulars in the past. Actually, I've been wondering about the Purples. They have been scarcearound here for the last 3 or 4 yrs.Our sightings this winter in decreasing order of frequency are:
Common Redpolls
Pine Siskins
Pine Grosbeaks
Evening Grosbeaks
Black capped chickadees
Downy woodpeckers
Hoary redpolls
Whitebreasted nuthatches
Red breasted nuthatches
Pileated Woodpeckers
Hairy woodpeckers
and one sighting of a Whitewinged crossbill


And note I've left off Ravens and Crows as not so "nice" birds! They are sighted regularly as are Bald eagles but none of those are at the feeders.


Purple finchesare absent and missed.

[NorthernWinos]

Nice selection of birds...
We have a hard time telling the Red Polls and Purple Finches apart...

They say to drive around a bit and report ones you see around your neighborhood...Like Snow Buntings and the Eagles...

We are not partaking this year because our interesting birds are not around...Neighbors are low on birds too.