This morning I once again spent a few minutes looking out my window at the bird feeders. I was shocked
to see a pine siskin – I thought they were all elsewhere for the winter. I guess the warm clear weather is
bring out the birds because I also saw the chestnut-backed chickadee using my birdbath.
This morning’s tally:
1 Pine Siskin
1 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
8 Dark-eyed Junco
1 Lesser Goldfinch
4 House Finch
1 Acorn Woodpecker
6 Scrub Jay
3 Steller’s Jay
3 Golden-crowned Sparrow
2 Oak Titmouse
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Anna’s Hummingbird
1 Mourning Dove
1 Band-tailed Pigeon
One of the disappointments of the Christmas Bird Count this year was not getting a chestnut backed chickadee. Luckily, today I saw another one in my yard (along with 1 steller’s jay, 1 oak titmouse, 3 dark-eyed juncos, and a mourning dove – not may birds, but then again I only looked for a minute while I watched the chickadee until it flew away a minute later). I’m going to fill the feeders and see if the chickadee returns (or whatever else I might see in the next half hour or so).
After a half hour of watching I managed a total tally of birds of:
1 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
2 Acorn Woodpeckers
2 Ravens
3 Scrub Jays
1 Steller’s Jay
3 Oak Titmice
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
8 Dark-eyed Juncos
3 Lesser Goldfinches
1 Mourning Dove
1 Golden-crowned Sparrow
3 House Finches
This year’s Mount Hamilton Christmas Bird Count took place on Jan 2, 2006. I participated by hiking the mule trail in the pouring rain (last year snow, this year rain, maybe next year clear?). We didn’t see very many birds because of the weather, but I did manage to add a bird to my life list, a slate fox sparrow. We heard golden crowned kinglets, but didn’t see any, so didn’t include them in the count. Otherwise it was just the normal assortment of white-breasted nuthatches, oak titmice, scrub jays, steller’s jay, acorn woodpeckers, golden-crowned sparrows, a nutall’s woodpecker, dark-eyed juncos, a brown creeper and a red-tailed hawk.
I also included a feeder count for my feeder, but it was not as popular as usual because of the rain. The only new birds were a mourning dove (haven’t had those at my feeder in weeks) and a house finch.
This morning it is foggy and wet, but not raining, so in a few minutes I had logged quite a few birds at my feeder:
2 Steller’s Jays
6 Scrub Jays
3 Acorn Woodpeckers
18 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 Oak Titmice
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Mourning Dove
5 Golden-crowned Sparrows
1 House Finch
