Summing up this year's GBBC

So the big weekend of counting birds is over. My final species total for my yard was thirty-two, not the best year that I've had but not bad, particularly considering that the weather was not that cooperative. These are the birds that showed up for the count:

1. Black Vulture
2. Turkey Vulture
3. Red-tailed Hawk
4. Red-shouldered Hawk
5. Killdeer
6. Eurasian Collared-dove
7. White-winged Dove
8. Mourning Dove
9. Rufous Hummingbird
10. Red-bellied Woodpecker
11. Downy Woodpecker
12. Eastern Phoebe
13. Blue Jay
14. American Crow
15. Carolina Chickadee
16. Tufted Titmouse
17. Carolina Wren
18. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
19. Eastern Bluebird
20. American Robin
21. European Starling
22. Cedar Waxwing
23. Pine Warbler
24. Yellow-rumped Warbler
25. Chipping Sparrow
26. White-throated Sparrow
27. Northern Cardinal
28. Red-winged Blackbird
29. Brown-headed Cowbird
30. House Finch
31. American Goldfinch
32. House Sparrow 

My most surprising visitor of the weekend was the White-throated Sparrow. I really hadn't expected that. 

White-throated Sparrow, February 20, 2012.

Of the ten or so species that I know are here but that didn't turn up for the count, perhaps the most disappointing was the Northern Mockingbird. Four whole days of intensive birding and not one single mockingbird showed up in my yard!

Late this afternoon I walked out to my backyard to put my gardening tools away. When I opened the back door, the first thing I heard was a mockingbird singing. I walked outside and there he was at my back fence, singing his heart out, mocking me! He might have been saying, "Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah! Can't count me!"

Darned mockingbird!