Matter of fact, I did count some outstanding birds -- well, I mean, they were
"outstanding" for me. I don't think any of them are particularly uncommon for
my area --- just uncommon for my yard. The whole counting experience (my
first) was in the spirit of those strangely lucky birding moments Tweeters
were talking about recently. I counted on two days, for 15 minutes each, from
my kitchen window, my usual (okay, my only) birding spot. From there, I can
clearly see four sunflower-filled feeders, three suet feeders, and one hummer
feeder (clean, filled, ready, but not recently used). Counted many usual
suspects: chickadees, nuthatches, towhees, juncos, sparrows, jays, finches.
Also a slightly less usual swarm of (21) bushtits that's been coming around.
And finally, some birds quite rare for my yard, including a flicker, a varied
thrush, and (excited little trumpet fanfare here) the Townsend's warbler that
several Tweeters had helped me identify recently! Thanks to their tips, now
that I've had a second look, it is very clear that's what he is. It was great
timing because I got to show him off to my partner this time, who hadn't
believed me before. Unfortunately, I fear my count list didn't give the Bird
Count folks a very typical snapshot of my yard -- but it was fun for me.

The day after the count, I got the rare treat of seeing a male and female
downy woodpecker at the same time -- she was pecking at some suet while he
poked at a tree close by. We sure are getting a lot more birds lately.
Mammals too, for that matter.

Jennifer Scott
Bainbridge Island
JLScott53 at aol.com


"There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding
each other."
---Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

<<Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 12:51:32 -0800

From: "Mike Wile" <mikewile at attbi.com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Enter the Great Backyard Bird Count!
Message-ID: <004201c2d9eb$0429deb0$48a7d00c at upstairs>
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Hello Tweets-

Just curious, did anyone have anything outstanding in their yards for the
Backyard bird count? Nothing great here, other than I did get 5
woodpeckers.


Mike

Mike Wile
Redmond, WA
mikewile at attbi.com
425-503-5766>>
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