Great Backyard Bird Count 2011

 WHO?

Great Horned Owl (C.Zaffis)

 All can participate in the 14th annual great backyard bird count.

Come one, come all, young and old alike, and count the birds in your backyard, park, school yard, or wherever you would like.  The only restrictions are that you must

Horned Lark (C.Zaffis)

• count for at least 15 minutes—hey, that’s not long at all!

•  go to the website at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html to get the proper forms

• do your observing on this Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday (Feb 18-21).

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Robin (C.Zaffis)

What a great opportunity to do something meaningful this weekend.  I mean, it’s President’s Day weekend.  For most of us it means no school, no work (if we work for the government), and great deals on furniture!  Is there really more to it?

Scrub Jay on Klock

Now you can help by being a scientist for a day.  This is a real deal, sponsored by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada.  These groups use the numbers you generate, your counts, to tell about how many birds survived the winter, how many are coming back to certain areas, and other important things.  In my home state of Florida, all the building of houses and theme parks and such is chewing up the natural habitat of a very important bird, the Florida Scrub Jay.  These counts, made by people just like you are helping to find patterns that may help save these beautiful birds from extinction.

White Raven (C.Zaffis)

From Cooper’s Hawks to Horned Larks, Great Horned Owls to Great Blue Herons, they all count and so should you…count all you see.  One day where I live in Utah it was a “…nice day for a white raven.”  This is a rare occurrence anywhere.

Yellow variant House Finch (C.Zaffis)

Be careful, this bird watching thing is addicting…you may not want to stop.

~klock