Bird Count: The highlights for 2009

Arthur prepares for his part in the Great Bird Count (and the not-so great squirrel count)

Okay, so I didn't post or update as much as I thought I would over the weekend, but that's because the birdcount was pretty exciting!! It was very active outside, even with the sunny weather. Last year, it was very cold and snowy over the birdcount weekend, so we saw some species in greater numbers (ie lots of cardinals last year). There were some surprises and some new sightings for us this weekend. Here are some highlights:


Friday- a total of 21 different species of birds.
Dave spotted FOUR American Robins. We've seen one here and there for most of the winter to our surprise, but seeing four is pretty impressive at this time of year.
We saw the male and female red-bellied woodpecker. We haven't seen the male in quite awhile, so it was nice that he made an appearance for when it counts.


Saturday- a total of 22 different species.
The stand-out today was the Sharp-Shinned Hawk that flew into one of the trees in the front yard near the end of the day. This guy is pretty small, so he would be easy to miss if not for the fact all the other birds scatter in his presence. This was the first time we have seen and been able to confirm a sharpie, so that was pretty exciting for us. Again, it was great timing for him to show up that day. It was here and then flew off so quickly, so we didn't get a picture of it.

Here is a picture Dave took of the Redpolls at the Nyjer Seed Bags.

Sunday- 19 different species.
No stand-outs for today, other than at the end of the day we saw more Downy Woodpeckers than we thought we had around. It was a last-minute feeding frenzy and we counted three males and two females. That was a record number to see at one time for us. We also saw two male and two female Hairy Woodpeckers, and I think that was more than we usually see too.

Some pics of the female Hairy WP eating an orange .

Monday- 20 unique species.
The stand out for today was the Cooper's Hawk. We've seen this guy around quite a bit this winter. He seems to favour swooping directly in front of the main windows and grabbing birds from the shrubs. About a month ago, I saw him flying by the front of the house daily for weeks on end. This seems to have died down a bit in the last while (probably with melting snow he has more food choices). Dave spotted him quite far off in the distance and we were pretty sure it was Cooper after a good look through the binoculars. Dave being Dave had to go in for a closer look. 30 minutes and lots of mud later, he came back with a confirmation AND the best pics we have of this hawk to date. A very exciting way to end the day and finish off the Great Bird Count weekend!! Looking forward to next year already!