This week was birding by couch and mostly wearing pj’s haha! With all the snow we spent most of the week hunkered down, or shoveling, as I assume many other birders did. It was fun to see the ebird lists from backyards and random addresses instead of the usual ebird hotspots. Many birders are used to being out every day birding and many had to be content to put in checklists of Juncos and House Sparrows. The 14-17 weekend is the Annual Great Backyard Birding Count where birders are encouraged to count their local birds, this year I think it has literally meant “your backyard” for those of us in Southern Ontario. All the snow means the birds are pushed to the feeders as it is more and more difficult to get through the snow to food sources.

Jerry and I still use shovels and muscle to dig ourselves out. Our neighbours all have tractors or mini-plows and will sometimes help us out if the snow is really bad but we still “enjoy” being able to get out and shovel. On Thursday a neighbour just cleaned out the plow snow at the end of the driveway for us which really helped but the accumulation over the last week means our double driveway is more like a single now. Spring can’t be too far away, right?

We also had some meetings to finalize Babi staying in the memory care place where she is beginning to be more accepting of being there. Most days she thinks she has just arrived there having walked from her apartment and we cannot, nor try, to dissuade her of that idea. More and more we now have to meet her where she is as her reality slips away. We look forward to being able to get her out a bit as the weather gets better and get family and friends in to visit her. We also managed to pack up a bit more at the condo. We have made a very small dent. PSA to those younger than 50 – stop buying STUFF! Think about living a minimalist life. To those over 50 – start giving your STUFF away NOW! Don’t leave it for your kids to do!

And now back to birding…

We live on 1.5 acres of land with a large pond/wetland taking up maybe a tenth. We left a lot of scrubby trees (Manitoba Maples) to grow and planted lots of Carolinian Forest species of trees and shrubs. We planted ecograss that can be left uncut or cut like a regular lawn and we planted Tall Grass Prairie species as well. We have a couple of feeding areas for the birds that are visible from our windows. For the safety of birds it is best to have feeders either super close to windows or very far away. All our windows have the Feather Friendly dots on them and so we very rarely have a window hit now. I purposely took the pics showing the dots but often when you are looking out depending on the angle you actually do not see the dots. We feed with black oil sunflower seeds in the shell, niger seeds, suet, and a mixed seed in the winter. Jerry will also treat them to peanuts. In the summer instead of suet we put out mealworms for adults feeding their young and, of course, nectar for the hummingbirds.

We have seen 135 species of birds in or flying over our backyard in the 19 years we have been here. Leaving most of the land to do its own thing has allowed it to become a neighbourhood mecca for the birds with trees, shrubs, grasses and weeds all helping to attract a variety of birds. All around us are flat expanses of mowed grass with a few trees around the other houses. The pond and a land-locked conservation area of evergreens help increase the kinds of birds we have in our yard.

This week we put in 7-8 checklists for our backyard and we saw between 12-16 species each time with a total of 60-80 individual birds on each checklist. For the most part they are common species for our yard but the Carolina Wrens we have visiting this year are not as common. Most of the time the checklists were for 1-2 hours of time. I hoped all week that a Sharp-shinned Hawk would fly through looking for dinner, or a Red-shouldered Hawk would check out the pond area as has happened the last 6 years but sadly while I was looking nothing happened other than the regular common birds coming to feed.

We spent a couple of days really hashing out our summer trip to BC and now have the drive out planned, booked and a Tofino boat trip and hotel booked. I’ll be booking a few more things over the next months once I research some more spots we need to bird.

And so this week 7 ends with no change to the count. Last year this would have been unacceptable, stressful. But this year I am calm, cool, and collected. I know there is lots of time, in better weather to increase the birds I’ve seen and so this forced hiatus has been somewhat rejuvenating. It has also allowed us to catch up on pictures in the Gallery on the home page under Canada 2025 so be sure to check that out.

And finally, what was I doing 35 years ago on this day Feb 16? Giving birth, my son Devin was born during an ice storm back in 1990. Crap, I am getting old! Happy Birthday Bud! I Love you!

Week 7 no new species added 161 species E, 162 species J