Jan 7, 2010

Birds of a feather.....

Scrub Jay "bad western cousin of the more elegant Blue jay"
scrubjay
It's that time of year again. We've got our trusty binoculars on the kitchen shelf. The camera is always on hand and there's lots of bird seed in the shed.

Yes, we are getting ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count. This year it's Feburary 12-15. What better way to spend Valentines day, eh? I'm cooking up some fun bird themed valentines and activities for the kiddos. "Love birds...etc" eh? eh? It's going to be AWESOME.

If you've already got bird feeders in your yard, you're good to go. As long as you stay consistent about keeping food in them. If you don't have feeders, now is a good time to start. You want to get a regular, steady stream of birds for the Count, and sometimes it takes a few weeks before the figure out there's food in your yard. This will also give you time to identify and learn about some of the birds in your area. WhatBird has been a terrific resource, as well as books from the library.

Birds are so interesting to watch. So much more interesting than anything on TV.
So, what are you waiting for? Hurry and get your binoculars!

**correction** house finch on the left, house sparrow on the right
finches

European Starling
europeanstarling1

4 comments:

Alan and Jeni said...

What a great site! We have all kinds of birds visiting our feeder and we've only guessed at their identities. Now in just a few minutes I've learned that some of them are northern cardinals, bluejays, black capped chickadees and red headed woodpeckers. How fun.

Amy said...

Great bird pictures!! Taken with your new zoom lens? (A little birdie told me)That Scrub Jay looks so fuzzetty.

Scribbit said...

Wonderful pictures--they're just beautiful!

Ice Cream said...

Sonja, your photos are constantly breathtaking.