Did you take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count last weekend? 
If you did, don’t forget you have until March 5, 2012 to report your tallies.
Here are my son’s results for the 2012 GBBC:
Mourning Dove – 8
Inca Dove – 1
Anna’s Hummingbird – 3
Curve-billed Thrasher – 1
Abert’s Towhee – 2
House Finch -Â 3
Lesser Goldfinch – 6
House Sparrow – 3
He then compared his results to earlier years.
Mourning Dove – 8
Inca Dove – 1
Anna’s Hummingbird – 2
Black Phoebe – 1
Mourning Dove – 5
Anna’s Hummingbird – 2
Curve-billed Thrasher – 1
Abert’s Towhee – 2
Great-tailed Grackle – 1
House Finch – 15
House Sparrow – 22
It was interesting to see some trends, and realize that we were learning quite a bit. First of all, he has noticed that the Abert’s Towhees are always present in pairs, a male and female. That’s why there are always two in each count. On the other hand, he usually sees single curve-bill thrashers.
The curve-bill thrasher has a unique curved bill and bright yellow eyes.
The house finches, house sparrows and lesser gold finches travel in larger groups. The numbers of house finches are starting to rebound after a low last year.
Elsewhere, according to this report from the Cornell Lab of ornithology, people have been spotting a lot of snowy owls this year. Now that would be spectacular!
What birds did you see?
