Project Feederwatch Begins with a Snowstorm
What is Project FeederWatch?
“Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broad scale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.”
My yard this morning
This is not a black and white photo. The sun is hidden behind many, many layers of clouds and even Photoshop couldn’t help this picture!
It figures Chicago would have a blizzard on my count day. So, where are the birds? Most of them are hiding in the snow-covered Spirea shrub. There are about 20 House Sparrows, a few Juncos, some finches, and a Cardinal out there, although you probably can’t see them. What you can see is a foot of snow that I am going to have to shovel — or maybe wait for it to melt; warmer weather is returning on Wednesday.
My seventh year participating in Feederwatch
The 2015-2016 FeederWatch count began last week and continues until spring. I’ve been participating for seven years now and am still amazed at the variety of birds that visit my feeders. I count for an hour or two on the weekends, but there is no minimum time requirement to participate — it can be as little as 15 minutes or as long as all day. It’s not too late to join. Participants can start at any time during the program.
——————————–
© 2015 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
Under My Apple Tree 
Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. You have a lovely blog and I love your photos. Thus far here in Montreal we have not gotten any snow (we usually have by this time), but I am sure it won’t be far off. 🙂 I love birds…and nature in general.
LikeLike