PROJECT FEEDER WATCH, at a mere $15 donation the cheapest ticket to an optimistic view on winter, kicked off its season this week. It’s what it sounds like: you watch your feeders (or in my case I watch my garden loaded with fruits and seed-bearing plants), and count who shows up two short periods each week. I’m in…paid my sign-up fee to get my information kit…and my first count day is Nov. 15. Hope the flock of cedar waxwings who’s been here all week stays till then, or better yet, all winter long, like the unexpected pine grosbeaks (above) did last year. Won’t you ante up and join me?
project feeder watch under way
November 12, 2008
I think this is a wonderful thing to do, but I don’t think I recognize very many birds! And do the sparrows who have decided to overwinter in the barn with the chickens count??!! They flee whenever I come in, but I’m sure they’re partaking of the feast I lay in for my girls every day, harumph!
–Johanna
Do join everyone! You can count up the similar-looking birds and then identify them later. In my urban lot in Virginia, I’ve identified 28 different birds. I didn’t know any of them before moving here from Hawaii. It’s fun!
Sounds like a fun project. I need to put up a few more feeders! Love that picture.
This picture is so beautiful. You could turn it into a Christmas card.
Everybody’s right, this is a fun and worthwhile project. I’ve been a “feederwatcher” since 2000 (and a birdwatcher since I was a child). The web site and the project kit has lots of helpful hints for identifying similar looking birds like sparrows with the winter plumage or hairy and downy woodpeckers. And what better way for a gardener to get through winter than by watching birds? We in the colder climates have to do something!
Welcome, Karla. To me the birds are my winter-survival mechanism, my link to the outdoors when the outdoors isn’t very inviting otherwise. I could watch them all day long (and have). Glad to have you here to spread the good word on things ornithological. Thanks.