Sunday, January 3, 2010

Feederwatch, week 8

This first weekend of 2010 was a blustery one! The high temperature was 22 degrees, and we had a low of 9 degrees, but a constant light breeze made for an even cooler windchill factor. A light dusting of snow covers the ground, making it easy to see where little birdy feet have hopped about.




It was a good weekend for aiming the camera at my fine-feathered feeder friends from the comfort and warmth of indoors. I got quite a few "take away" shots, like these.


White-breasted Nuthatch and Red-bellied Woodpecker fly off with their respective treats. Once again, you can actually see that red belly.

And the beautiful Northern Cardinal looked especially brilliant.


Kelly, this one's for you!

A very special treat was an extended visit from a sweet Carolina Wren, but I'm saving those photos for another post.

Someone recently asked me if we had noticed an increase in Titmice at the feeders this season, to which I replied "no." Well, I went back and checked data from all seasons to-date, and it turns out that so far this season has seen the greatest average number of Titmice: 4.5. My first season of Feederwatching ('05-'06) saw the lowest average number of Titmice, at 2.4, and last season was the 2nd lowest average with 2.9. Hmmm... last season saw a poor showing for Carolina Wrens, too. I think I need to figure out how to get my data into some kind of chart form for easier analysis, which might help me get a better picture of what happened last winter that made it so difficult for the birds. Now that I think about it, though, the winter may not have had so much to do with at as the summer - maybe last summer was a bad/unsuccessful mating season for some reason.

Anyway, to this weekend's numbers...

Week 8 roll call, 1/2/10-1/3/10:
Mourning Dove25
Red-bellied Woodpecker1
Downy Woodpecker1
Hairy Woodpecker1
Blue Jay1
Carolina/Black-capped Chickadee4
Tufted Titmouse5
White-breasted Nuthatch2
Carolina Wren2
Song Sparrow2
White-throated Sparrow3
Dark-eyed Junco3
Northern Cardinal5
American Goldfinch7

Happy birding!

8 comments:

KaHolly said...

Love these shots! That cardinal couldn't be any more brilliant!

Craig Glenn said...

Nice post, love the Cardinal!

Craig

Gabrielle said...

Happy New Year Heather!

Is there anything cuter than little birdie footprints in the snow? Well, maybe little mouse footprints, but you know what I'm saying.

That cardinal photo is gorgeous (- and perfect for Kelly!)

Monika said...

Heather - Do you use Excel at all? If you enter all your counts into an Excel spreadsheet it's pretty easy to generate graphs and charts to look at all sorts of things. It could help you look at your data in a whole new way!

RuthieJ said...

Your photos are so amazing! I love your "takeaway" shots and the cardinal....well, that one leaves me speechless!

Ginnymo said...

Love those shots of the birds carrying off their food. And that Cardinal photo is gorgeous!!

Kelly said...

Heather....that Red is gorgeous!! I love that photo! Thank you very much! :-) We have hit the jackpot with titmice it seems, and last year we struggled to see a few. I love those sweet little birds. Seems like their numbers are up everywhere!

Heather said...

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone. I'm quite sure that the Cardinal is one of the most photogenic birds of North America. Who doesn't like their striking good looks?

Gabrielle - Little mousy feet in the snow... now those are some prints I would love to see!

Monika - I've not used Excel much as a tool for creating graphs and charts, but you're right, that is something I should look into. Thanks.

Kelly - I knew you'd like Red. ; ) I'm glad your titmice numbers are staying high. I'm thinking this must have been a good breeding year for them. I remember seeing quite a few young ones at the feeders this summer.