Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Watching Wildlife

So far this year, I have been rudely staring at birds and taking their photos. I even spent a 4-day weekend counting them recently, as part of the GBBC (also known at the Great Backyard Bird Count). I counted 69 different species over those four days. On the last day of the count, I actually counted in our backyard (and a bit in the front yard for variety) and saw 22 different species, including one, a Northern Flicker, that I hadn't seen near our yard before. The next day, I saw my first White-crowned Sparrow near the yard, and two days ago a pair of Western Bluebirds out front (I see these pretty much every day at work, but this was a first seeing some at home). So, yeah, I've gone full bird-nerd. 

I have logged some observations on eBird, and some on iNaturalist. We have been using iNaturalist as part of our virtual camp routine with kids, and have even gotten at least one kid to create an account there. I have two accounts, one to log sightings at work, and one for everywhere else. My personal account is relatively new, so there aren't a lot of sightings there yet. For what it's worth, here's what I've logged so far.