Monday, November 13, 2006

Gray day


Rain in my driveway
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.
Feeling gray and dragging today. It's pouring rain and all I want is to curl up in front of my fireplace with a good book, some popcorn, and a glass of good wine.

Instead, I'm sitting at my desk, procrastinating getting to work, and giving a good whine about the weather.

It's not a good alternative!

On a more upbeat note, this will be my second year participating in Project Feederwatch. I counted birds on Saturday and Sunday this week and saw:

Chestnut-backed Chickadees - 6
Steller's Jays - 1
Anna's Hummingbirds - 3
Pygmy Nuthatch - 1
California Towhee - 2
Dark-eyed Junco - 6

I can't say that I'm totally serious about PFW yet but I did get my feeders set up and organized before the Nov 11 startdate this year and I am counting from the very first weekend. This is such a fun project and so important for the data. I am proud to participate and even sent a kit to my parents this year -- I hope they participate! And, I'd love to see more people to sign up too. The east coast is well represented but the west coast and mid-west are more lightly represented. And, Alaska and Hawaii -- sad!

6 comments:

BEG said...

Sounds like an interesting project! But I'm afraid I'm not up on bird ID's :-). My report would be something like: 6 big birds, one noisy little bugger, two sorta black ones, three brown ones, and one hummingbird who saw the scene and fled immediately.

Anonymous said...

It is a gray day here, too. Rain all day, and so I hear, for the rest of the week!
You have a nice site, I will be back to read more.

LauraHinNJ said...

All of those birds sound very exotic to me (except the juncos).

I've never done this, but have done the great backyard bird count a few times. Fun stuff!

Unknown said...

Project Feederwatch is really fun and I started it as a way to improve my skills at bird identifying. I am not particularly good at it yet but I am enjoying the learning process.

I like the whole idea of citizen science. And have seen the value of my input. At my house, Chestnut-backed Chickadees are EVERYWHERE -- I'd see 20 at a time last year, the computer always asked me if I was sure I'd seen that many -- based on their numbers, they didn't think you'd see that many at once. My place isn't unusual, they just didn't have the data to know that those little birds are so prolific! :)

LauraHinNJ said...

Well then, you're making a valuable contribution!

Susan Gets Native said...

I have done PFW for three years now, and I love it. Hopefully my gig with RAPTOR will allow me the time to do it properly this time around.
We do need more contributors in the west.