BirdingGirl

On the advice of my neighbor John ( Bird Man of Bridgewater ) I recently joined the South Shore Bird Club . I attended their annual member's dinner last night, held in Norwell. It was a lot of fun to meet other South Shore birders, and it was certainly inspiring to watch the slide shows of the pros. There was a short presentation from Joan Walsh , Coordinator of the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 2 , and I have to say her speech was motivating- I would love to participate and help them finish the breeding atlas. I'd definitely need to go out with a pro and have some coaching on how to look for breeding behavior, but the biggies (like if they're carrying sticks/nesting material, and obviously if you see them going back and forth to their nest) I think I've got down. Has anyone participated in a breeding atlas before?

Today is the official start to Project Feederwatch, operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This is my first year participating and I'm excited because it will make me much more disciplined about birdwatching. I've never done counts before, so I think it will be helpful in getting into the habit of doing that. Although today is the official start date, I won't be starting my counting until Tuesday. I've decided to count on Tuesdays and Wednesdays since the odds of me being around are much higher than the weekends. Plus, it will be good motivation to get up early to watch the feeder before work (and start my day earlier on Tuesdays and Wednesdays). With the time change, it's actually daylight when I get up now so it shouldn't be too hard. This morning I went out back for a practice run. I knew there would be a lot of birds since I had been hearing them outside starting around 7am. The feeders were in rough shape (the smaller one was empty, and the long tube ...