FeederWatching - Week #4

This is not the way it is supposed to be. In the past 10 years of doing Project FeederWatch, my counting has started out slow in early November and then built week by week. This year, I seem to be going in the opposite direction. During the weekend just past, I had the lowest total of species yet.

Now, I wasn't able to devote as much time to it as I normally do and the very cold temperatures limited my time outside, but still, even though there was more activity around the feeders, I only saw twelve species. I would have expected more.  

Here are the species that I was able to check off the list for this week.

White-winged Dove - 1
American Crow - 1
Blue Jay - 1
Northern Cardinal - 3
Tufted Titmouse - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 3
Carolina Wren - 1
Rufous Hummingbird - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Pine Warbler - 1
House Sparrow - 14

That one White-winged Dove may be the harbinger of more to come and there was a lot of Northern Cardinal activity in the yard, more than in past weeks, although I never saw more than three birds at a time. But the majority of visitors once again proved to be House Sparrows, which is a bit depressing.

I've hung my nyger seed feeders for the American Goldfinches, but I don't think they have been visited yet. Also, I haven't seen any House Finches around the yard lately, although they had been very visible earlier in the year.

So, on the whole, things are still distressingly quiet on the avian front. Here's hoping for better luck - and better weather - next weekend.