Tammie Rogers
Inspired by Dogs & Nature
Still hanging out
While I don’t usually do it as a routine, sometimes I go to http://www.eBird.org where I fill in a checklist of birds I’ve observed on a specific date. That organization uses the data from hobby birders when evaluating the populations of birds around the country (maybe even internationally – I’m not certain of that.)
What’s interesting about this system is that if a bird isn’t supposed to be in your area, it won’t show up when you initiate the checklist. It uses the location you input to provide a list of possible birds. A couple of times I’ve experienced the situation where I saw a bird that isn’t on the list. In that case, they offer a spot to “manually” enter a bird into their system.
A couple of days ago I filmed a number of different birds in the trees near our pond, including the juvenile Cedar Waxwings and the large flock of blackbirds about which I’ve recently posted. I also filmed a couple of less common species including the Vesper Sparrow, seen here:
The other “moving through” species I caught, was a Yellow-Rumped Warbler, below. The second photo shows the warbler (top), an Easter Wood-Pewee (middle) and an Eastern Bluebird (bottom) :
All of those birds were listed on the eBird checklist. so I was able to send in those data for their program. However, a species which had spend the breeding season (summer) here at our place, and which I filmed quite often later in the season, was no longer on the eBird list. It was the Blue Grosbeak. Still, I filmed a lovely female (she’s not blue – but rather a rich cinnamon color.) I’d like to say she just enjoys it here! But, I hope she makes it to her southern destination without experiencing bad weather on the way.
Tammie Rogers 