South Burlington, VT Bird Photos
| What is the GBBC? |
The GBBC is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are. Beginning in 2013, The Great Backyard Bird Count checklists will be accepted from anywhere in the world! The 2013 GBBC took place February 15, through February 18. Everyone is welcome--from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds.
Participants tally the number of individual birds of each species they see during their count period. They enter these numbers on the GBBC website.
The Great Backyard Bird Count is led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, with Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada and sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited.
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/whycount.html
Why count birds?
Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document and understand the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time.Scientists use the GBBC information, along with observations from other citizen-science projects, such as the Christmas Bird Count, Project FeederWatch, and eBird, to get the “big picture” about what is happening to bird populations. The longer these data are collected, the more meaningful they become in helping scientists investigate far-reaching questions, like these:
• How will the weather influence bird populations?
• Where are winter finches and other “irruptive” species that appear in large numbers during some years but not others?
• How will the timing of birds’ migrations compare with past years?
• How are bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions?
• What kinds of differences in bird diversity are apparent in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?
-Text Credit: Great Backyard Bird Count led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, with Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada and sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/whycount.html
The photos I took and shown here are a few of the 16 species I was able to identify in our backyard during the 2013 GBBC.
Northern Cardinal (Male)
At ease soldier!
Hairy Woodpecker (Female)
however flying regulations only allow one peanut at at time!
spending most of his time here
looking for bird seed
on the ground.
Don't you just love sunning youself in Feb.
Downy Woodpecker (Male)
Suet or peanuts... they both look so good.
But don't be touching my peanuts.
They didn't tell me dinner was going to be buffet.
Sweethearts
If you look closely, you will see this is the biggest one.
Now if I can just wrangle it out of there.
House Finch
Did you hear what I heard? No Limit buffet.
You can almost hear this Redpoll crunching away on the Sunflower seed.
OHHH this spa is warming my tootsies.
There is a door here somewhere, I just know it.
The invasion of Starlings
The Boss
See this video taken in our backyard of a Nuthatch giving warning to a Titmouse to stay out of its personal space and wait in line for peanuts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lna2myxKhc&feature=youtu.be
See more Vermont backyard bird photos from ~ Feb 6 @ http://www.litterwithastorytotell.blogspot.com/2013/02/vermont-backyard-bird-watching.html
See my many installed bird nest boxes @ http://litterwithastorytotell.blogspot.com/2012/04/bird-nest-box-vacancies.html
Love seeing pictures of these Northern birds. Glad too that you are one of their friends.
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