A couple days ago 5+ inches of snow fell in Rockford and beautified our backyard nature preserve. Over the last five years or so we have found 96 species of birds at the C.N.P. Here’s what it looked like (although the only birds of note were Dark-eyed Juncos and American Goldfinches): The snow provided a
Month: December 2007
DeKalb Christmas Bird Count
Since the nearby DeKalb Christmas Bird Count was on the same day as the Rockford Christmas Bird Count, December 15th, it was one we had to miss. Mike Andrews, compiler for the count, let us know how their day went. They had 21 people out in the field and 4 feeder watchers this year. There
Phriday Photo
Little Birders
Photo Lifelist Hits 177!
The Birdfreak Team has been working on a Photo Lifelist for awhile now and we finally reached 177 species! We were going to celebrate the 175th, but due to faulty counting, we passed it already! So here is number 177 on our photo lifelist! This Rough-legged Hawk was “shot” while out on our first Christmas
Deer Run Bird Survey #3
We were supposed to do our third Christmas Bird Count of the season [Dec 23], but blowing snow and zero visibility forced us to turn back. We are dedicated citizen scientists, but sometimes it is better to, as the saying goes, “be safe than sorry”. Especially right before Christmas. Christmas Eve day we decided to
Bird Conservation – Henslow’s Sparrow
The little Henslow’s Sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii) is easy to identify by sound (the call is similar to a tiny hiccup), but hard to find in tall prairie grass. It has declined by more than 80% since 1966 and its habitat is all but gone. Sprawling cities, farms, and reforestation have all contributed to loss of
Merry Christmas!!
We posted this last year and were happy with it so decided to have another go at it! ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The cat had removed any stray rodents running the floors, Because she followed the policy to keep cats
Deer Run Bird Survey #2
A recap of our second survey of the birds of Deer Run – December 19th, 2007 [read about the D.R.B.S.] Canada Geese As the other Deer Run Bird Surveyor, Birdfreak, slaved away at work, his sister Veery tromped around solo, doing one of the survey loops. Walking was mildly difficult in the snowmobile ruts. I
