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Article in: Updates

Month in Review

It’s March 1st and February’s birding is done. It was a quick and quiet month for birds. Not many year birds were sighted but perhaps the highlight was the day trip to the Mississippi River to see around 1000 Bald Eagles.

February proved to be extra busy with work and family so the birding was limited – much more so than I would ever want it to be.

The weather was mostly awful with periods of “warm” weather (40s) followed closely by large snowstorms and rain.

Total yearlist stands at 38 species. This is rather pathetic but the birding was limited, and the “good” months are coming soon!!

We added only one species to the Callaway Nature Preserve (our backyard) year list – Red-breasted Nuthatch. This brings to year’s total to 17 species.

One of the bigger birding happenings of February was that I began creating a website and blog for my local birding club. This has been consuming large amounts of my free time, but the efforts will be well worth it. I am also working on the Winnebago Birding Guide, a website dedicated to promoting the great birding in my home county.

March should be good because Spring is just around the corner and certain birds should be returning soon – already Sandhill Cranes are returning, but the weather is still too gross to really enjoy birding.

7 Comments or Trackbacks   ↓ Jump to add comment ↓

  1. jessica freeman says:

    Hey

    You have a wonderful Blog. I really enjoyed reading it. I was searching for different ways to improve my Blog and I found you Bog on blog explosion. I get a lot of free traffic hits from http://www.autosurfmonster.com if I were you I would submit this blog so thousands of others can see it. Well I wish you warm regards and continued success. I have added your blog to my favorites and I am planning to come back, so I will look forward to all the updates. Thanks again

    Jessica

    Posted on: March 3, 2007 @ 3:01 am

  2. Scooter says:

    Congratulations on the accomplishments you’ve made, Eddie. :)

    Posted on: March 4, 2007 @ 12:05 pm

  3. Birdfreak says:

    Thanks all!

    I will check out Blog Explosion soon

    Posted on: March 5, 2007 @ 8:44 am

  4. Rosanna says:

    Hello, there!
    My name is Rosanna. I know your are a bird lover, and I need some tips about feeding the backyard bird. Actually I am in a city of Texas, and I live in an apartment instead of a house. I wanted to feed the birds, but all that came to eat are house sparrows except one pair of Northern Cardinals. I just learned house sparrows are considered ¡°bad¡± by people, in this sense, I should not feed them, but I still want to feed the cardinals. What should I do? I am using a bag of ¡°wild bird seeds mix¡±, but both the cardinals and the sparrows eat them. I wonder in your knowledge, is there anything that cardinals like to eat while detested by the sparrows? Is that possible? Am I wrong if in order to feed the Cardinal I also feed a bunch of sparrows? I am so puzzled now.
    I will be very appreciative of your reply! Thank you! My e-mail is rosanna_2003@hotmail.com.

    Posted on: March 7, 2007 @ 11:14 am

  5. Birdfreak says:

    Rosanna – I don’t think House Sparrows are bad, they are just where they don’t belong. It is not their fault they were brought here. They do pose a problem for native wild birds because they are highly competitive. If you want to feed Cardinals, House Sparrows will be around too. That’s just how it works.

    I would strongly suggest purchasing a bag of black oil sunflower seeds. It won’t deter the house sparrows but you won’t have as much waste seed and you could probably put out small amounts at a time. Also, if you only put out seed in the early morning, removed it and then put it out again in the evening, you would have less house sparrows. The Cardinals (at least in N. Illinois) tend to eat the most at these times.

    Posted on: March 7, 2007 @ 5:47 pm

  6. John W says:

    Hello,

    This is a bit off topic, but I thought I’d ask anyway. I found your site off of one of your friend naturalist sites. Seeing that you’re a bird expert, I’d love to find out if you know the name of this bird: http://johnwphotography.blogspot.com/2007/03/bird-by-walden-pond.html
    I took the photo in June in Massachusetts if that helps.

    Great blog! Thanks!

    -John
    http://www.johnwphotography.blogspot.com

    Posted on: March 11, 2007 @ 9:12 am

  7. Birdfreak says:

    John W – I posted a comment on your blog. Looks like a Catbird (and I mis-spoke… I didn’t realize it was taken in June until I read the comment again)

    Glad you like the blog!

    Posted on: March 11, 2007 @ 1:25 pm

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