Thanksgiving Bird Count

I just learned about the Thanksgiving Bird Count a few weeks ago, and thought it would be fun to participate. It's simple enough: pick an area, 15-feet in diameter, and for one hour on Thanksgiving day count the number of each species of bird that comes into or flies over your circle.

I have a couple of evergreen trees in the front yard that often has birds hiding amongst their branches, and they're easy enough to observe from either the front window or just right out the front door. So that was my circle.

I have a hopper feeder and a suet feeder hanging in the trees.

9:00 am was the time I decided to head out to watch and count. The turkey was in the oven, and I had a few free hours.

It was a very quiet morning. Several birds flew overhead and nearby, but this was the extent of the activity at the feeders:


Here's a list of the birds seen and heard within or just outside of my circle:

Rock Pigeon - 1
Northern Flicker - heard only
American Robin - heard only
European Starling - 14
House Finch - 9
Gull species (impossible for me to distinguish when flying) - 110
Killdeer - heard only
LBJs - 24

I need to work on IDing birds in flight, because that's all I had today.

But it was so nice to spend an hour outside this morning, enjoying the world after rain.