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melanie
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Has anyone participated in The Great Backyard Bird Count and/or Project Feederwatch? I'm debating between one or the other...
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Sept 08 2009 at 5:43pm | IP Logged
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A little about these programs...all are sponsored by Cornell University:
Great Backyard Bird Count - 4 days long each February.
We've participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count for the past few years and we really enjoy it!
** Free
** Takes place in February of each year
** Next Backyard Bird Count February 12-15 (only 4 days of watching vs. Project Feeder Watch's entire season)
** No cost to participate
Great Backyard Bird Count has a section for kids.
Project Feeder Watch - winter long count (6 months) of bird counting.
We will participate in Project FeederWatch this year.
** Goes for an entire season of watching - through the winter from November to April - ish.
** Costs $15 to participate, but you get a nice research kit. It would make an extraordinary natural history focus especially for the winter season when nature walks are shortened due to colder weather. We watch birds from our windows - why not make it official?!
Project Feederwatch has some amazing homeschool resources on their site.
eBird - is a year long bird count
eBird is a new program and looks exciting, especially for avid bird watchers! It's also sponsored by Cornell University.
** free
** Simply sign up any time and start entering results and observations
This program is less linked than the other two, probably because it is newer, but also it seems to really lend itself to the more serious bird watcher.
Don't know if this helps you make the decision, Melanie. We're planning on participating in Project Feeder Watch this year because winter birding is our passion here. If you're unsure about committing, just consider the Backyard Bird Count in February since it's just 4 days of watching. It's lots of fun!
Hope this helps! Whatever you do...seasonal bird watching is lots of fun! We love watching all year long, but the winter especially is a favorite of ours. It's just a delight to have nature come right up to the windows on a cold winter day!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Angel
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| Posted: Sept 08 2009 at 6:02pm | IP Logged
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We've done the Great Backyard Bird Count and Project Feederwatch for a couple of years now... although birdwatching is my daughter's passion, eventually even my boys get into it  . It's a lot of fun, especially for those dreary winter days when you just long for a dash of color. Then when those downy woodpeckers come to your feeder, you're ready to great them like old friends!
The Feederwatch site also has lots of interesting statistics which is a good way of linking math to science. We like to play around at their Explore Data page.
E-bird has actually been around for a while... I think we got an account there for Katie a couple years ago, but she hasn't used it much for one reason or another. It's a good way to track your sightings all year long. I don't know why it isn't publicized more, but I think maybe it's because it's less a "citizen science" campaign than a tool for birdwatchers (of any level).
The good thing about all 3 of these programs is that you don't have to choose between them... you can do them all at the same time .
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Angela
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Sept 08 2009 at 7:35pm | IP Logged
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Is there some way to draw birds to our yard? We are rural and have 2 1/2 acres, but we don't have any trees except the baby ones we planted a year ago. I thought we'd have more birds than this (the only thing we see regularly are killdeer nests, which we get every year). We tried hanging a feeder last year in front of a window but no birds ever came to it ( we followed the instructions in the Apologia bird text for making bird suet and also had bird seed). We planted a birdbath in the middle of a flower bed, but it never gets any attention either.
What am I doing wrong? I'd love to do the 4 day watch, but I'm afraid nothing will show up in those 4 days. 
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Angel
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| Posted: Sept 08 2009 at 7:48pm | IP Logged
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Hmmm. Well, sometimes it takes a while for birds to find the feeders. Our first year here we had no birds even though we had a lot of trees, but since then our bird counts have grown each year. The birds do like cover, though -- bushes/shrubs if you don't have trees, anything that fruits. We've had success putting a 5 lb seed block on the ground for groundfeeding birds.
Also, what kind of seed are you using? Black oil sunflower seeds draws more birds of all kinds than any other seed we've tried. (A tip I took from By Sun and Candlelight. )
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Angela
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Sept 08 2009 at 8:47pm | IP Logged
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Agreeing on the black oil sunflower seeds. Our birds far prefer them...and we do spoil them a bit especially in the winter.
Bookswithtea wrote:
| Is there some way to draw birds to our yard? |
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I have a favorite book to recommend, but I think it might be oop.  I feel like JennGM.  I'm going to recommend it anyway!!
Attracting Backyard Wildlife by Bill Merilees.
We don't have big trees around the house, but adding Pussy Willows (which grow quickly) and privet hedge have provided cover that really have attracted our birds. Shrubs that berry in the fall also bring the birds. Keep plugging away with the water source/bird bath, especially in the winter. We have far more visitors to the bird bath in the winter when water sources are scarce/frozen.
Good luck, Books!
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Jen Mackintosh
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melanie
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| Posted: Sept 08 2009 at 10:33pm | IP Logged
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Thanks all, maybe we will try both then. We have had feeders out and been enjoying the birds for a few years now. It's amazing how attached you get to seeing those little guys. We have a cardinal pair that hangs out in the same couple of trees, seems to be the same pair each year, and we sing back and forth to each other when I go to hang the laundry, it just makes my day. :)
We have different kinds of feeders to attract some different birds...sunflower seeds, thistle sacks, and a cake of suet for insect eaters, a hummingbird feeder that mostly seems to feed the bees... We've had nuthatches, woodpeckers, blue jays, chickadees, robins and wrens of course, and lots of starlings (don't like them much). It probably helps that our property is such an overgrown mess. We have several bushes and a couple of dogwoods that provide some berries and habitats too.
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
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Angel
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| Posted: Sept 09 2009 at 6:14am | IP Logged
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Oh, and also consider the wind when you're thinking about feeder placement. (Books, I seem to recall that you're in a more northern climate?) If you're in a windy area at all, birds will frequent feeders that are out of the wind more than feeders which are in a windier position.
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Angela
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Bookswithtea
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These are great ideas. I will see what I can do this year so that maybe a winter from now we can do one of the bird counts.
Angela, wind is definitely an issue where we are. Because our land used to be farmland, there are no treebreaks and the wind is just wicked here in winter. I'm not really sure if there is any place I can put a feeder that would not see a lot of wind...
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Sharyn
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To my knowledge we don't have any bird watching programs here.
We love bird watching though and so this year I have got the children to do a 'Bird's in our back yard' notebook. Everytime they see a different species of bird we identify it and then they draw a picture of it in their notebook and write the common and scientific names.
Now our whole suburb is pretty bereft of tree's and our yard isn't much better. Before we started the notebooks I thought we didn't have many bird's come into our yard, and we certainly don't compared with area's with more bush about, nevertheless I was surprised at just how many we have been able to put in our notebook's. If you make a point of recording you can end up finding more than you think.
We moved our school room to one of our back rooms which overlooks the garden, and one day we were amazed to see a kingfisher alight in our tree(not something we were expecting to see in our area). One time we were also lucky enough to see a Boobook owl, it wasn't even dark yet, and it didn't seem to be afraid of us at all.
Happy birdwatching anyway 
Books,you don't have cat's or dog's do you? They really keep the bird's away. Also are you near where there are nectar feeding bird's? Because I remember watching a program on these bird's in the US that will drink out of plastic bottles with sugar water (or some such thing)hung from the eaves of their houses. Don't forget to buy a good bird identification book too. There is nothing like one of those to get you excited about what's in your yard.
And here are some great bird coloring pages, that will be of more use to you all being as they are US bird's :
http://www.50birds.com/cb3.htm
My daughter Phoebe thought it is wonderful that there is a bird called a Phoebe.
Youtube can be a good source for learning about bird's. When we come across a US bird and are interested to know what it's behavior is like we key the bird's name into youtube, and you'd be surprised at how often you can get something. We wanted to know what woodpeckers pecking sounded like, and found a few to listen to and watch. It was great, we saw real wood peckers pecking They sure are loud!
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Bookswithtea
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Sharyn wrote:
| Books,you don't have cat's or dog's do you? They really keep the bird's away. |
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 Ummmmmmm, one 50 lb lab and 2 kitties well on their way to adulthood. All outside. It never occurred to me that having a dog would keep away birds. Sigh...I wonder if I'm doomed to not have a successful birdwatch at my home?
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melanie
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We have three cats, two of whom are outside trying desperately to catch a bird. The birds seem rather amused by it than anything. They have suceeded once in five years that we are aware of. The trick is to keep the feeders in an open enough space that the birds feel like they can see what's coming...keep them away from overhangs and such where a cat might be able to watch and wait. Our cats are usually trying to get the birds that are eating seed off the ground that feel out of the feeder. They can see them coming a mile away though. Maybe my cats aren't good hunters.
My third cat, the one that doesn't go outside, has a cat perch in the window looking out at the feeders. She sits there all morning, swishing her tail wistfully.
My parents live in the woods and have TONS of birds come to their feeders, and they have two dogs. So, I don't know...
Maybe, you said you live further north, yes? Would that make a difference in the winter? I don't know, I've always lived in the south.
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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Sharyn
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Sharyn wrote:
| Books,you don't have cat's or dog's do you? They really keep the bird's away. |
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Well this probably does depend on a few things. The 'personality' of the bird species, and the size of your yard.
Our yard is smallish and doesn't have much vegetation, add in a dog and the birds seemed to find that the final straw. We have had lots more birds in our situation since we haven't had a dog. Still a lot more fly over than visit our yard.
This is what I really miss about living in the country or more bushy suburb's. It's so lovely to hear all those different bird's and watch them going about.
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MaryM
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Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Citizen Science, of which these programs are a part, is also sponsoring a cool fall photo contest - Spooky Birds. I posted about it in this thread. While you all are monitoring your feeders and counting backyard birds, don't forget to keep the camera handy to photograph any strange bird behaviors. 
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Mary M. in Denver
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: backyard bird count/feederwatch
