Citizen Scientists Call to Action - Great Backyard Bird Count

In my last post, I focused on some opportunities to get out and bird. This post is a call to action in your own yard.

From Feb. 16 - 19, the Great Backyard Bird Count is hosted by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and eBird. This is an extended weekend opportunity for you to spend time watching birds in your backyard and documenting in eBird which species you saw.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great opportunity to start birding as a hobby for yourself, and it provides scientists with a wealth of data. It allows them to see where in the US different species are and how many. It's a unique opportunity to part of something bigger than yourself.

So you're new to the world of birding? Not sure what you need to know...let's start there.

1. Unsure about correctly identifying birds. Here's a good place to start.
2. Unsure about counting. (I'll address that below)
3. Unsure about when. Pick any time over 15 minutes between Feb 16 and 19th
4. Unsure about documenting. You'll need to create a free account on eBird.

Counting strategy can be tricky, right? You see one bird, then later you see two. Did you see three? Or did you see two? For species where males and females look different, I keep track of the highest number of each male and female I see. Then total them. So for example, if I see 1 red cardinal, then later 2 brown, and then later 3 red; I would total it as 5 total cardinals. That way I know I am not doubling counting.

eBird is relatively simple. Once you've created your free account; find the Submit link. You then need to identify your location. Look up your location using "Find it on a map" and searching for your county. Once in, enter a more precise location. Once you've filed your location, you'll be brought to a list of birds. This where you enter your count. It's relatively simple.

Winter - A Great Time To Get Out of Your Yard to Bird

I recognize that the entire purpose of this blog was / is aimed at encouraging readers to landscape with native plants to build a healthy ecosystem at home and enjoy the wildlife which inhabits your yard. However winter wildlife watching can become run of the mill. Another Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, woodpeckers back at the suet, finches on the nyjer feeders....sometimes you need to get out.

During the winter a host of birds will look for places with open water to pass their time. Open water provides places to find food, places to swim in relative safety, and of course a place to drink. The upper Midwest has a number of places where there will be some amount of open water. In fact, for some of you this water might just be right near your backyard.

Water features of note are good sized rivers (especially ones which generate hydro-power) like the Wisconsin River. Sites near hydro electric dams tend to remain open. Areas which end up artificially heated by human activity or urbanization like the Mississippi near Dubuque, IA or Lake Michigan near Manitowoc or Milwaukee may also be places with open waters. Larger bodies of water like Lake Michigan or the Mississippi are unlikely 100% freeze over anyway and may be slower to freeze up in the fall / early winter when compared to smaller bodies of water.

So what are you likely to see?

Bald Eagles for starters.

Bald Eagle Days in Sauk Prairie - 2012?

A host of Midwestern cities have eagle watching festivals or tours including: Sauk Prairie WI, Dubuque IA, Galena IL, Prairie du Chien WI and Starved Rock State Park IL.

You will also see waterfowl too of course

Tundra Swan nears Brownsville MN 2016

All of the Mallards and Canada Geese which had been loitering around the golf course, your yard, the local retention pond are joined by mergansers, golden eyes, swans, and less common varieties of duck and geese in open water wherever it's found. Not only are a number of these species attractive; they can be easy to spot as they are moving about in flocks. On their own merit these are worthy birds to watch. Personally, I've been most interested in the migrating swans. These can be seen near the Upper Mississippi River Wildlife Refuge in places like Alma WI and Brownsville MN. Most recently, I encountered Trumpeter Swans on Lake Evergreen near Hudson, IL (and as you can see others have seen them too.)

If it's starting to feel like winter is dragging on, jump over to ebird and explore the data, either by species or region and plan an outing to see something which holds your interests and makes the cold bearable.

Making the Most of Winter and Starting the 2018 Count Well

It's very easy as a gardener, birder, and well as a human to write winter off. It's dark. It's cold. The flowers aren't blooming; the trees are bare, and many of our feathered friends have migrated.

All that said, each year, I begin my count anew. If you are a recent visitor to the blog, here's the short version. When we bought our home, there were very few plants in the yard. So I planted a bunch of native plants hoping to increase the ecological utility of the lawn, and as a measure I count how many different species of butterflies, birds, mammals, and reptiles / amphibians I see in the yard each year. On New Year's Day the count starts over.

Common Redpoll

The count always brightens winter up some. I think it's healthy to be reminded just how much life is still active in the cold. We've counted 17 different species of bird in our yard since January 1st. Three of which are winter migrants: Dark Eyed Junco, Pine Siskin, and Common Redpolls. They are a reminder that there are places colder and dark than the Wisconsin winter. (So count your blessings)

Pine Siskins

As I noted earlier this week, you can also identify the mammals skulking about your lawn too. So far our mammal count is up to four: Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, Eastern Gray Squirrel, Striped Skunk, and Virginia Opossum.

We typically see somewhere over 40 species of bird and 7 or so mammals in the yard through the course of the year. This means that after the first month of the year, we've probably seen close to a third of the birds we expect to see and half of the mammals, assuming this is a typical year. I'm hoping that this is a sign that this year's count will be better than typical.

Winter is a Great Time to ID Backyard Mammals

Many nature lovers turn to birding as a hobby and it's relatively easy to understand why. Birds are fairly charismatic, sometimes brash. The males are often brightly colored. At dawn and dusk, they sing which reveals their positions. They fly from branch to branch giving away their position. In short, they are easy to watch.

Mammals on the other hand tend to stay hidden. Many are nocturnal. Many burrow underground are stay hidden moving through the brush or under the snow. Larger mammals like deer, coyote, and fox are certainly findable and some common backyard mammals like Eastern Cottontail Rabbits and Eastern Gray Squirrels are easy to spot. But there is plenty mammalian activity which goes undetected. You need an assist to see some of the activity.

Snow can be a great assistant especially if there's no wind to cause drifting. Mammals moving around at night while you are asleep will leave their tracks behind. So if you are curious to know who else is living in your neighborhood, take a look around outside after a fresh snow. Last night we had a wintery mix which left a crusty ice snow behind. I found some really interesting tracks when I ventured out this morning.

Skunk Tracks with telltale 5 toes.

These alien hand prints belong to the Virginia Opossum

2017 In Review: Flycatchers, Warblers, Bluebirds Oh My

It's been an incredibly long time since I last posted. In this past year, I did an admittedly poorer job tracking the happenings in my yard than in years past, but I still managed to do a decent job so I figured with 2018 started, sharing last year's results here was a good way to kick start things for this year.

Species Counts 2017
1. Birds: 43
2. Butterflies: 8
3. Mammals: 5
4. Reptiles & Amphibians: 1 (The reliable American Toad)

The year started off strong with a couple of Bald Eagles who circled the house riding on thermals in February. I hesitated to run inside to fetch the camera because I didn't know whether to continue to watch them or risk losing site of them. This was the only picture I captured.

We had a pair of bluebirds nest successfully again this year. Although they didn't get started until June, so we only had one nest this year. We also had Flycatchers as regular visitors. We think we saw all of the following throughout the year: Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Wood PeeWee, Willow Flycatcher, and Least Flycatcher.

Fall migration was really something special this past September. Many evenings from Sept 11 through about Oct 11, we had scores of birds come through typically bluebirds, warblers, and flycatchers. Specifically we had Yellow Rumped Warblers and Palm Warblers come visit.