Fill your feeders and get ready for the bird count you can do in your pajamas.
For four days — tomorrow February 14 through Monday February 17 — you can participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count from the comfort of your home. All you need to do is count birds for at least 15 minutes, keep track of the highest number of each species you see, and record your count on eBird (instructions here). If you take pictures, submit them to the GBBC Photo Contest.
Join with others across the continent in this weekend science project. Your data will show trends in winter bird populations across North America as you can see in these statistics from prior years.
Don’t want to stay indoors? You can count birds anywhere or join others at one of these local events. (Scroll down for the many events in Pennsylvania.) Here’s how to participate no matter where you choose to count.
Meanwhile, you can practice counting with this photo by Marcy Cunkelman. What species and how many birds are in the picture?
(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
American goldfinch — at least 19 birds
I made sure I had my account ready, so that might be a good idea to register if new and if you did it in the past, make sure you have the right username and password — today, so you will be ready to add to the count…I forgot from last year, but I am ready now. Looks like we should have snow and more snow this year….won’t be wet and muddy like in the past…