I’m gearing up for the Great Backyard Bird Count, which takes place on February 12-15, 2010. I am an ambassador this year and will give a presentation about the GBBC at the Moon Township library on February 6.
If you would like to participate please visit www.birdcount.org to learn more about it, how to count the birds, and how to submit checklists. It is important that you submit the highest number of birds seen at any given time; e.g. if you see seven cardinals at a time and an hour later you see five, put seven in your checklist, not 12. It is quite possible that you are counting the same birds twice.
Most importantly, have fun! The GBBC is a great way to get acquainted with birds. Perhaps you will find a new interest. I did.

The frigid weather – and the fact that the ground is covered with snow – brings lots of birds to our feeders. Unfortunately, many of them are starlings. The other day, however, I noticed a red-brown speckled bird on the ground I did not immediately recognize. I consulted my new book, “Lives of North American Birds” by Kenn Kaufman, and feel pretty confident that the new guy is a fox sparrow. The book says that it makes forward jumps and then scratches back with both feet at once. That’s exactly what struck me as odd about this sparrow. We have never seen a fox sparrow before, but since we are just north of its usual winter grounds it’s entirely possible that a fox sparrow is visiting our yard.
I would love to get a photo of this stranger, but my fingers are already ice cold inside the house. I therefore need to find a good pair of gloves/mitts with removable finger tips to operate camera controls. Don’t worry, I would not expose my bare fingers but instead wear liners underneath the gloves. Liners give me the necessary dexterity to turn buttons and focus the lens. It will be a while, though, until the weather is decent enough for me venture outside for more than filling our feeders. Until then, I keep watching the birds from our kitchen window–and try to figure out how to get rid of starlings.

Saturday’s snow fall really brings the birds to our feeders. I counted 12 cardinals at one time. Also in abundance are house sparrows, mourning doves, and squirrels (not birds, but a steady presence around our feeders). A Carolina wren also visits the feeders quite often, and three crows search for the peanuts my husband throws outside every morning. As if to compensate for other birds, we seem to have fewer dark-eyed juncos than during other winters.
A new addition to our bird/squirrel offerings is a log that hangs from a bungee cord. It is pressed out of corn kernels, peanuts, and sunflower seeds. It is a huge hit with squirrels, titmice, chickadees, and wrens. Of course, we have our usual offerings of black-oil sunflower seeds, safflower, corn kernels, nyger, and suet. Something for everybody!

The gardening year is winding down and it’s time to take stock of the successes of our native garden. After removing our huge silver maple, we had enough space in our backyard to finally buy a serviceberry. It is now the centerpiece of our second native garden. Its bloom was very short this year (I didn’t even get to photograph it because it was over so quickly) but I hope it will bloom longer in its second year. I missed the berries because I was out of town at the time. Its autumn color was beautiful–a russett red that added a beautiful shade to our fall garden.
We also purchased a Joe-pye weed that was a bee and butterfly magnet. I have the photos to prove it. Its blooms attracted bumble bees into October. Luckily, we got a dwarf variety. They can get taller than a man in the wild.
Our zinnias recovered after the first shoots were eaten by rabbits. With a later bloom, they provided color until the first frost killed them.
Next time I will blog about the failures of our gardening year. Luckily, there weren’t many.

The wood duck is one of a few ducks in North America that nests in trees near water. Many people consider it to be the most beautiful of all waterfowl. You can count me among them now. I think they look like swimming paintings.
Wood ducks readily nest in boxes, and that’s how they were introduced to North Chagrin Reservation. As you can see on this photo, the head of a wood duck drake is iridescent. While the females look more drab, they also have a crest and beautiful plumage. Most remarkable is their white eye ring.
They feed off seeds, acorn, fruits, and invertebrates. At North Chagrin, they often picked up pieces of wood out of the pond.
Wood ducks pair up in January and are usually paired by the time they reach their breeding grounds. They are probably gone by now, but they’ll be back in Ohio next year, ready to enchant us again with their beauty.