Keeping It Simple

We finished up on Monday afternoon by sitting in our backyard and quietly waiting for some birds to fly by. I am amazed at how many birds are in our yard. Many of them are invisible to us- they are high up in the Redwood and Fir trees in our front yard. But, the sheer volume of bird song is surprising when I finally get my 3 guys to sit still for a minute. 1. Participate in Backyard Bird Count- check  (I have planned since last year that we would) 2. Complete a fun bird study to go along with the Backyard Bird Count- next year On this count: Mallard Bufflehead American Coot Thayer's Gull (we may have had our gull's mixed up on our first count) Western Scub-Jay Northern Mocking Bird Crow (but we forgot to put them on our official count!) More About The Great Backyard Bird Count Our First Post About The Count

I read about this bird count project last year and thought "how fun!", but did not get to it. This year, the boys and I are joining the fun. For our first day, we sat on our back porch to observe what birds came by. Eventually, we all came out from under our shelter to get a better look. We were soaked through by the time we were done, but it was a satisfying exercise! We spotted some coots and buffleheads in the water behind our house. In the midst of suburbia, we are blessed to have a waterway (Percolation Ponds ) behind our house. At various times, we have herrings, egrets, ducks, geese, frogs, and other slimy creatures! Fortunately, we had my husband's super sized binoculars on hand to view some of the farther away flyers. Paul spotted two hawks (not uncommon around our house), so it was his job to decide what type they were. The wing shape decided it for him. We have the most fun trying to figure out what type of species two little blue birds were. After l...