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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Wrapping up the Great Backyard Bird Count

Overall, it was a successful weekend of counting birds in my yard. I ended the four-day weekend with a total species count of 37. That was good enough for third place in Montgomery County (at least as I write this) and 56th in the state.

Here is my final list of the species that I saw in my yard or flying over it during the weekend, with the highest number of the birds seen at any one time:

 1. Black-bellied Whistling Duck - 8
 2. Snowy Egret - 1
 3. Black Vulture - 2
 4. Turkey Vulture - 5
 5. Red-tailed Hawk - 1
 6. Cooper's Hawk - 1
 7. Eurasian Collared-dove - 1
 8. White-winged Dove - 12
 9. Mourning Dove - 1
10. Rufous Hummingbird - 2
11. Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
12. Downy Woodpecker - 2
13. Eastern Phoebe - 1
14. Blue Jay - 2
15. American Crow - 4
16. Carolina Chickadee - 4
17. Tufted Titmouse - 2
18. Brown-headed Nuthatch - 1
19. Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1
20. Carolina Wren - 4
21. Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
22. Eastern Bluebird - 2
23. American Robin - 5
24. Northern Mockingbird - 1
25. Cedar Waxwing - 24
26. Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
27. Common Yellowthroat - 1
28. Pine Warbler - 3
29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 5
30. Chipping Sparrow - 2
31. White-throated Sparrow - 1
32. Northern Cardinal - 8 
33. Common Grackle - 100
34. House Finch - 1
35. Pine Siskin - 50
36. American Goldfinch - 33
37. House Sparrow - 5  

As always, there were - frustratingly - several birds that I know were around but that just didn't show up for my count. Birds like the Inca Dove, Red-shouldered Hawk, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Pileated Woodpecker, and Brown Creeper. Oh, well, maybe next year...

I was also somewhat surprised to see that the 28 species that I recorded during our family picnic to celebrate my daughter's birthday at Brazos Bend State Park on Saturday were good enough to make me seventh on the Fort Bend County list - again, that is as I write this. More and lengthier reports may come in later.

It was a good weekend - most of it spent outside with the birds. What could be better?

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