Monday, May 17, 2010

Breeding Bird Atlas


I've been doing some work on the breeding bird atlas for my assigned block. I've been watching around my neighborhood. I've contacted people who live in my block to ask for observations. I got permission from the Boy Scouts to bird watch in the Rum River scout camp. I even bought myself a new pair of binoculars. My new busnell binocs are 16X where my previous binocs were 7x and 10x. I even bought a very nerdy harness to hold the binoculars to my person. Putting the strap around my neck is tiresome after a length of time unless I am fully dressed in my winter garb. Once I get a bird in the confirmed category I don't have to look for that particular bird anymore. So far I have two birds confirmed breeding. The first one was an American Crow that was seen soaking it's food (bread, dead snakes) in a bird bath before carrying it away. Carrying food in flight is not something birds do unless they're bringing it to the babies. The second bird I confirmed to be breeding is a black capped chickadee that was seen cleaning out an old woodpecker hole to nest in. Nest building is under the confirmed category. I have possible categories for goldfinch, red wing blackbirds, robins, cardinals, bluebirds, barn swallows and downy woodpecker. Yesterday I did some motorcycling around to look for new areas to scout. I found 3 more parks where I can birdwatch. I biked in and around neighborhoods that I have never traveled to before. This project is going to be a lot of fun.

2 comments:

Cajo said...

I love crows. It was soaking its food, aw...! Dead snake, not so appetizing, but it's cute nonetheless.

Sue said...

I know you like crows. I'm glad they use the neighbor's bird bath to clean their bounty instead of mine.

One More Sleep