Great Backyard Bird Count

[sandbox]

QUOTE

The next Great Backyard Bird Count takes place February 13-16, 2009. The National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are calling on everyone to “Count for Fun, Count for the Future!” Participants did just that in record numbers for the 2008 count, submitting more than 85,000 checklists and identifying 635 species. Let’s break some more records this year!

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

An email just reminded me about the program and dates certain, I thought I'd post something here for those out there looking for some stimulating activity to share with someone that could use it.

We sponsor Cornell through their Ambassadorship program. This has been a great activity for seniors in our community. This page gives some insight into why.

http://www.seniorsmile.com/Pages/Backyard_Bird_Count.html

[Gregg]

Most of the birds up here have headed your way...

[kimmer]

Thanks, SB. Looks like fun.

If anyone down south of me is looking for the brown pelicans, most of them are still here (or were before this recent storm). Seems the eating is good and they are enjoying the sun, sand, surf and food.  Normally they are headed south by mid-October, but here they have remained. Of course, the fishermen aren't too happy they are still around. HA!

[sandbox]

The cool thing is even folks in wheelchairs can watch, and they get so excited they forget their troubles if only for a moment. You can keep your pelicans kim, we have enough.

[kimmer]

Okay, I'll take your pelicans. Of course, I'd be run out of town on rails by the fishermen. HAHAHA

I do think they are beautiful birds. I go up to the Seal Rock, pull over and sit and watch them whenever I can.

The bird count should be grand fun.

[sandbox]

If you road a bike and had a pelican poop on your head......well....you might not see them the same way. For some reason they like to poop on Jane's car, and when they do it's not in one place it's from front to back, side to side. WoW

[kimmer]

LOL! Sea gulls do the same thing and I've been christened, and so has our car.

I've got Mac talked into taking part in the bird count.

[sandbox]

We've just sent a article to the newspaper to remind them of the event. We've also contacted the county service division to put up notices on their sites. The GBBC is sending us some posters to put up in key areas, like our Senior Center and waiting room at the City's Muni building, loby at the university, library, blah, blah, blah

[jcarter]

Many years ago, we were out on the Belize barrier reef and our friends were takng us from tiny cay to cay.  We happened upon a small one about a couple of acres and the mangrove trees were just totally filled with pelicans, just hanging and sitting on every branch!  We figured it was a rookery, as there were nests and young.  Never saw so much white POOOOOP!
And they were making an odd muffled peeping noise, I didnt really know that pelicans made any noise, being a quiet bird, the opposite of our vocal sea gulls.
We pulled the boat up on the sand and got out and looked around, it was really amazing!  But the smell, oh my goodness, whew.
It was such a thrill to see a nesting area of pelicans, as we had never seen one in Florida.
Ive pictures, just snapshots with a Kodak disposible camera, I should look thru our old boxes and find them.
Weve always admired pelicans, a very unique and interesting bird.  
Jane

[sandbox]

Jane, among many others there's this.  

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge

http://www.americantrails.org/nationalrecr...Pelican-FL.html

[jcarter]

Wow, that is beautiful! Thank you for the link. We lived in Melbourne, actually Eau Gallie, and never knew this was there.  That was back in the 1950s.  I do remember a lot of pelicans near the Inland Waterway where our house was on a bluff, our dad used to take us up to Cape Canaveral a lot.
Those were wonderful days, we have very fond memories of FL.  Then we moved to Ft. Liquordale, whoops I think I spelled that wrong, for our high school days.  A very different town from Eau Gallie, we lived on a boat in the old Bahia Mar marina, and spent most school vacation days in the Keys on our family boat.
Jane

I heard from our Belize friends that that little cay has a sign on it now, saying please do not land your boats and do not walk about on the island, as it disturbs the birds.  Though there are very very few people who know about it.

[sandbox]

The area, since the 70's anyway has been pretty much the same, I think the Park designation is is a more resent event. I spent time on key Biscayne and Hollywood Beach boardwalk back before the Boat Lift days, of course the region changed after that event but Biscayne remained somewhat secured.

The small keys in and around Flamingo to the south has a great mix of birds and hunting gators and crocodiles. I think it's one of the only places you can view crocs in the open. The flamingos are cool to observes as well. The down side is the skeeters, thick as fog.

[jcarter]

We are thinking of a vacation in FL this winter, just driving all over and looking at where we used to live and visit. (Cant go back to Costa Rica or Belize, as we refuse to take Lilly on a plane.)
I know Sanibel will knock me out, as we used to take the ferry over and stay at Casa Ybel.  
But I think we should do it, though I will be shocked at the changes, as we did this about 12 years ago, and were appalled with the traffic and how things had changed. (We had come back from a diving vacation in Andros and had an extra week of time.)
Looking to find places that are dog-friendly to stay.  Know that due to the collapse of the economy, that there are many many places empty and just wanting someone to rent.  A 'buyers or renters' market.
Jane

[sandbox]

I'm not familiar with the east coast lodging situation. i could ask around.
do you do B&B's or just hotel/motel or notel-motels ;-)

[jcarter]

Im not really familiar with it any more either, we do go online to check out the B+Bs, or sometimes just take what we can get. But thats when we are travelling pet-less. If we stay anywhere for more than a few days, we always opt for a kitchen, as I have some food allergys and prefer not to eat in restaurants very frequently.
Seems its always easy to find small and cheaper apartments or inns in the Caribbean with a bit of searching, so I imagine that with this economic slowdown, that there will be a lot of nice places to stay. Though we dont like the pampering resort scene. Any place which brags about celebreties visiting, we avoid like the plague.
Yes, we love the B+Bs in New England too.  Just waiting for Lilly to grow up a bit more, she is a 'teen ager' now.  But that chewy puppy-stage is over thank goodness.
Jane