Sunday, May 28, 2017

SPRING BIRD COUNT.

      Spring bird count takes place sometime during the bird breeding season. Of  course, the idea is to count everything we see and hear. I've participated in this event for many years.

       I find spring bird count rather frustrating. Half the breeding birds are on a nest so you won't see them. Many of the breeding birds forage in the new leaves so it's difficult to see them in the leaf canopy. Warblers sing their little hearts out but you can rarely see them amongst the leaves. I was within 3 meters of a yellow warbler yesterday but I didn't see it. If it's windy or hot you see fewer birds . If you go in the afternoon many birds are on their afternoon nap.

       So with all this whining I'm working up to tell you that I had a lousy bird count yesterday. Yes , it was very windy. It was also very bright. So I ended up with 15 species but my numbers were small.

     I count in  ravine area which has many different habitats.There's old growth forest...spruce and poplar. There's riparian area along the stream banks. There are areas of brush. There's even a little grass in some areas.

    So I took some photos of the area but I didn't get any bird photos.









25 comments:

  1. Looks like good birding habitat, but then the birdies like it because they can hide. Frustrating indeed.

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    1. It's good habitat but very fragmented.

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  2. I would expect it to be the same most spring counts. How different was your count this year from last?

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    1. I had more species this year but fewer individual birds.

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  3. It looks like a good area for the birds. Not so much for the birders.

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    1. If birders show patience they will find many birds.

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  4. It looks like summer has arrived in Red Deer. Sounds like the spring count can be challenging. Thanks for the pictures. Have a good week ahead!

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    1. We get very long days now so plant progress rapidly. I heard crows at 4:45 AM. The beggars woke me up.

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  5. Looks like a beautiful area to see the birds when they are around.

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    1. It's a great area. You have to be patient. I tell myself over and over ,"Be patient."

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  6. I can look right at a bird in the forest and not see it, so I can empathize.

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    1. They blend in very well with the surroundings.

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  7. My hat is off to you and the other birders - I only realized this spring how many versions of one bird there can be ... juvenile, breeding adult, adult plus both genders to consider and they can all look different. And I'm not sure if that's even all the possibilities. Crikey.

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    1. You have got the picture on birds. It gets complicated.

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  8. Although I'm reasonably good at identifying birds when I see them I'm not so good with the calls so I'd have a fairly difficult time on a day such as you described.

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  9. The message must have got round amongst the birds - "Quick! Let's hide guys! Red's coming round again!"

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  10. It would be a wonderful time to see different kinds of birds. I have not heard about this before...

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  11. It looks like things are greening up nicely in your neck of the woods. Too bad there weren't more birds but it was a good reason to get out on a nice spring day, right!

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  12. This certainly takes a lot of patience! But lots of fun, too.

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  13. Although you may not have seen as many birds as expected, I'm sure it was still nice to be outdoors listening to the birds sing.

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  14. I hope you have better birding next time you go out Red, but your scenery photos were very enjoyable. Thank you :)

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  15. Whining is perfectly reasonable this time of the year birding. I cover pretty much the same complaints for the same reasons yearly. :)

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  16. Perhaps the birds are playing hide and seek with you! 15 isn't all that bad of a number!:)

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  17. We moved to our newer house and I immediately put out a feeder. The kinds of birds seemed similar to what we had before but I wasn't seeing mourning doves. I hated not seeing them. Probably a week later I discovered they were here but were feeding on the ground the story below. I want to get a tray feeder put out but it hasn't happened yet. Our development built up in a cleared forest area. Fortunately there is still timber surrounding most of the area.

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  18. You must have to be awfully patient to be a birder. We were interested in looking for birds a long time ago, but have given it up because we just couldn't recognize birds well enough.

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