One Year of Record-Keeping

Last week, I promised that the next installment would be more in-depth.  So as promised...


The ever-paranoid Western Scrub-jay finally stands still long enough for a good photo.

The second weekend of November is the annual kick-off of FeederWatch, which is sort of an ornithologist geek equivalent of the NFL kickoff weekend.  And while I still prefer Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison to Pine Siskins and Myrle Warblers (no, the West Coast hasn't completely taken away my manhod), I've found that counting and documenting birds is a nice complement to my weekend football-viewing (the TV is in the same room as my main viewing area).  And while taking data for FeederWatch and being able to compare it with state and national averages is an enjoyable and informative exercise, I've always been disappointed that it only lasts for five months.  Therefore, I continued to collect data this April and beyond.


(If the table appears distorted, right-click and open it in a new window.)  I should first mention that the data collected from last November through late March of this year were only taken on the weekends.  Therefore, the numbers are biased slightly.  Birds that could only be heard, but not seen (like the Western Screech-Owl that I heard one night back in March) are not reported.  That said, it gives us a pretty good indication of what has been showing up and when.  The sheer number (45!) surprised me somewhat, given that we're smack in the middle of a medium-sized city.  That goes to show the importance of location and habitat.  Species variety seems to be at a maximum in April/May and Oct/Nov, which isn't terribly surprising since those periods are the middle/end of migration.  Since some birds tend to move around in mixed flocks in the Fall and Spring, I was not surprised to see Pine Siskin traveling with small flocks of Goldfinches.  And since flying hundreds or thousands of miles takes a ton of energy, it's easy to understand why I've only seen Black-headed Grosbeaks in May and August and why Rufous Hummers tend to not be drinking nectar as often in May and June.  Similarly, a few White-crowned Sparrows stopped by for a week or so in mid/late April, most likely on their way to their breeding grounds.  A couple out-of-season birds also showed up.  In some instances, this was due to either injury (the Fox Sparrow in May) and/or disease (the Varied Thrush in April).  But I have no idea why a Canada Goose decided to land in our yard back in May or a female Mallard and duckling decided to trek through our cat-infested neighborhood. 

The one major difference between this and last year is the fact that we're now an "established" feeding environment.  I would almost never see more than 15 American Goldfinches at a time last Fall/Winter, but I was seeing over 50 back in October.  I had never seen a Lesser Goldfinch until mid-March and they became the dominant finch at my feeders this Spring and Summer.  I expect that this winter will be even more action-packed than last and we're already off to a pretty good start.  This weekend's counts...

Anna's HB (2)
Downy WP (1)
Western Scrub-Jay (1)
American Crow (2)
Black-capped Chickadee (2)
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (2)
Bushtit (8)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (2)
Brown Creeper (1)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (1)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler (1)
Dark-eyed Junco (9)
House Finch (2)
American Goldfinch (7)

• Posted at Sunday, November 11, 2007 01:57 PM
• In General Category | Permalink