The Not-Too-Bad Backyard Bird Count

I'm ambivalent about this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. My birds were decidedly run-of-the-mill, with no exciting accidentals like the orchard oriole of 2011. On the other hand, Saturday morning's observations were launched with a sighting great blue heron perched on a neighbor's roof, and I logged 20 species on Sunday. Not too bad, really, considering our lazy method (Nikko, the cat, and I watched out a window our feeding stations and the surrounding skies). I even had time for a quick 15 minute count this morning, which I'll post later. Here are Saturday and Sunday's reports:

Observation Date : FEB 18, 2012
Number of Species: 15
All Reported: yes
Checklist:
       Great Blue Heron - 1
       Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) - 2
       Steller's Jay - 1
       American Crow - 1
       American Robin - 1
       Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 2
       Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) - 1
       Townsend's Warbler - 1
       Fox Sparrow (Sooty) - 2
       Song Sparrow - 2 (one of the song sparrows may have been a female, but didn't get a long look at it.)
       White-throated Sparrow - 1
       White-crowned Sparrow - 3
       Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) - 8
       Pine Siskin - 7
       House Sparrow - 4

Observation Date : FEB 19, 2012
Number of Species: 20
Checklist:
       Cackling Goose (Aleutian) - 50
       Turkey Vulture - 1
       gull sp. - 1
       Eurasian Collared-Dove - 2
       Anna's Hummingbird - 1
       Downy Woodpecker - 1
       Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) - 1
       Steller's Jay - 1 (vocalizations only, no visual)
       Common Raven - 1
       American Robin - 5
       Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 2
       Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) - 1
       Townsend's Warbler - 1
       Fox Sparrow (Sooty) - 2
       White-throated Sparrow - 1
       White-crowned Sparrow - 2
       Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) - 3
       House Finch - 5
       Pine Siskin - 2
       House Sparrow - 3

The song sparrow of previous post and fame was quite active on Saturday morning (and reliably every morning for the previous four weeks), but entirely absent Sunday and today:

Observation Date : FEB 20, 2012
Number of Species: 11
Checklist:
       Cackling Goose - 500
       American Crow - 2
       American Robin - 1
       Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 3
       Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) - 1
       Fox Sparrow (Sooty) - 1
       White-throated Sparrow - 2
       White-crowned Sparrow - 1
       Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) - 6
       Pine Siskin - 1
       House Sparrow - 5

Bloom

Golden flags unfurl
The bright messengers of spring —
Daffodils are up

Correcting the Record

For the record, I'm not really an idiot. I just act like one.

A bold, streaky sparrow took up residence in the neighbor's apple tree and blackberry brambles a few weeks ago. It hit our feeders along with The Usual Suspects. ID: song sparrow.

A few days later. Singing. Not a song sparrow song I'd recognize. Get binoculars and camera; observe bird, record video, take photos. Cinnamon flanks. Funny song -- like part of a song sparrow song, but missing parts, and buzzy. Surely not a song sparrow. Lincoln's sparrow?

Oh, boy! A Lincoln's sparrow!

Listen to online recordings of Lincoln's sparrows and song sparrow. Neither sounds like my sparrow.

A week later. Singing again. This time, I listened to that song. Hard. For about an hour. And the song had not remained the same. It had changed. It was now the song of the song sparrow.

Every morning that little devil is the first bird to sing. And he sings, unfalteringly now, for hours. Sometimes I even hear him in the afternoon if I'm around the house.

I must also correct the record of a previous bird-related post: juncos are back. Just had to wait for a cold snap. Saw six or eight of them this morning. Fox sparrow last weekend, too.

Hmph.

Where's Winter?

This morning we were visited by our resident flicker pair and it seemed they had a juvenile with them! But mostly our winter backyard bird action has cooled down. The dark-eyed juncos, fox sparrows and warblers seem to have moved on, and the pine siskins have moved in. A Lincoln's song sparrow* is still hanging around, and he sings his territorial song regularly each morning. Still, I'm looking forward to the Great Backyard Bird Count next weekend, Feb. 17-20.

Here are some photos taken in January:

Fox sparrow

Townsend warbler

* See "Correcting the Record"