PS

Tonight, at 8 pm, snow falling lightly and we looked out, there was our saw-whet sitting on a branch near the bird feeder. Yippee. The mice and voles have met their match. We hope to see it more than one brief moment.

Christmas Bird Count, Part Deux

We ended the day yesterday, with a small count of birds, but a very nice surprise at the end. Around 2:30 PM we saw a brown creeper going up and down a couple of the spruces. I thought, wonder if we'll see a golden-crowned kinglet. The two birds have been together in our yard, not truly "together" but - several times, we've seen a brown creeper and then a few minutes later, we'll see a golden-crowned kinglet. And of course, I did see a gck about three weeks ago or so. Totally surprising to me, as it was bitterly cold and had been for several weeks. So I kept a close watch out the window. About 45 minutes later, a golden-crowned kinglet hopped thru the branches of the spruce tree near one of our feeders. He disappeared and reappeared several times. I held my breath for some unknown reason, not that my movements or breathing would have disturbed him. Tom came into the room and I said, quick quick grab some binoculars. The kinglet reappeared and sat on the end of a spruce branch, his golden crown displaying so clearly and vividly. We just exclaimed, ohmygod, at the same time. He was so beautiful. Then he was gone. I wonder if he and the brown creeper come thru our yard every day, and we just happened to be watching yesterday for the bird count. So we will try to be a little more watchful these next days during the holiday vacation.

Our final count for the day: 7 Black-capped Chickadees, 5 Boreal Chickadees, 6 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 1 Raven, 1 Magpie, 1 Stellar Jay, 1 Hairy Woodpecker (female), 1 Brown Creeper, 1 Golden-Crowned Kinglet.  We heard that someone had seen and photographed a Townsends' Solitaire somewhere in the Kenai area. Very cool.

Christmas Bird Count

Today is Christmas Bird Count day. We have always done the backyard bird count, and are doing that today. This morning the temperature here was minus 1, and I'm sure further inland, much colder. Not my favorite temperature to be out hiking around counting anything. Being inside, counting from our kitchen viewing window, seems much more pleasant. So we began with two nuthatches, and nothing else. By 11 AM, only four nuthatches, a magpie and a squirrel (don't believe that counts). Then we heard the welcome drumming of a woodpecker. We walked out to the deck and peered around the edge of our spruce tree property line, and saw, on the former aspen staging tree which is now a tall dead stump, one female woodpecker, drumming away vigorously. At 11:30, still no chickadees.  About two miles as the crow flies, there is a large area that has been completely clearcut and the slash piles are presently burning. It's a heartsick moment, when you drive by an area that has been full of thick spruce trees and mixed deciduous and suddenly see flat ground. Habitat is gone. Probably to be replaced by metal industrial strength buildings housing bulldozers. There is so little regard around here for trees, for natural habitat, for natural beauty and aesthetics. It's part of the reason we have become birders, appreciating and respecting the natural world around us. I assumed when we moved to Alaska that everyone here must be an environmentalist. What a joke.

Will post again later after we finish our bird count. It may be that we'll have to do some creative reporting, as in, "4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtledoves, and a .........."  But, hopefully we'll have more visitors before sunset.