Project FeederWatch Week One

Week one of Project FeederWatch (PFW) is over. I had 11 species visit my feeders over the two days. That equals the highest number of species I had visit on PFW days last year. The opening week of 2009 I only had three species. Bird activity is still low at my feeders, but the number of species is varied.

PFW Week 1 (Total Species - 11):
Eurasian Collared-Dove - 5
Mourning Dove - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 2
Tufted Titmouse - 2
Carolina Wren - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 1
Pine Warbler - 1
Northern Cardinal - 2
House Sparrow - 12

I went down into the woods to clear more on the trails. We finally got through with the first one! It looks great and will be easy to walk on. There are several big trees on either side of the trail. It connects the new pond to the trail around the fence line. We've got a little clearing to do on the fence line now. Tallow trees have grown up in the trail and a tree fell across the fence. I don't think it will be too hard to clear it. Here's a map of the property with the existing trails and proposed trails.

While we were down in the woods, two Hermit Thrushes were chasing each other. They seemed oblivious to our presence and came close several times. Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere. Eastern Phoebes and Northern Flickers called from the treetops. I am still waiting to see Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Maybe if I just went birding instead of being in the woods with a chainsaw. Hmmm . . .

Property Birding, 1/18/10

I spent an hour and a half birding on our property today. The birds were active! I didn't see anything I wouldn't expect to be there. There were a few pretty neat things. I stopped by the Barred Owl box I put up last spring and there has been some kind of activity at it. I could clearly see that something has been going in and out of the entrance hole. I'm not ready to say it's for sure a Barred Owl, but it's promising! Also, a little further down the trail, I found a Red-shouldered Hawk constructing a nest. They nest every year close to us. When they have chicks in the nest, we can sit outside and watch them fly back and forth carrying prey to feed them. The last neat thing was watching an Osprey fly directly overhead while I was at the new pond.

I realized I keep putting things on here about where I was when I saw something and most people have not been out here to be familiar with our property. Here's a rough map of what our property looks like.


The yellow line shows our fence line. To the east is mature woods with oak, hackberry and ash. In the middle is pasture which is being slowly overrun by tallow trees. To the west is a neat mixture of grassland and cedar/pine woods. I do 90% of my birdwatching on the eastern part of the property. I do like to go to the cedar/pine woods to the west to find Barn Owls. The old pond will have Hooded Mergansers, Anhinga and other ducks on it. So far, the ducks haven't come to the new pond made by the drilling company. It's still pretty open and there isn't much cover for them. It's a wonderful place to go birding. As of today, I've seen 193 species of birds on it.

Birds seen 1/18/10 (36 species): Snow Goose, Double-crested Cormorant, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Killdeer, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, White-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird, European Starling, American Pipit, Cedar Waxwing, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pine Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow