Project Feederwatch started in November, and with it the Musich Family Citizen Science Project for the winter. I originally heard about the program on MPR, in June, asked the boy about it and signed us up, knowing we would be in our new house, and hoping that we'd be able to sit on the couch together and enjoy the peace of watching birds and keeping our hands busy with some needle arts.
This weekend we nearly accomplished that vision of domestic bliss. I was sitting on the couch watching the birdless feeder as I drank my coffee and Optimus put in his bird song CD. He followed along in his guidebook curled up in the nook of my knee, letting me know when the bird we were listening to was one we might see at our bird feeder because it had a year-round range that included our spot on the map of Minnesota, occasionally throwing out tidbits like--"look, this bird lays eggs in other birds nests" or "this one we might see at our feeder in the summer, because it comes here then."
The bird activity is nonexistent in the morning. Maybe the birds don't like the chill that early? The early afternoon though is amazing for the volume of activity that occurs in the general vicinity of our bird feeder. These pictures are a sampling of the three most common birds we see at our feeder: House Sparrows, Black-eyed Chickadees and Northern Cardinals (both the male and the female have put in an appearance, but the male is pictured here.). We even had a Black-eyed Junco put in an appearance for good measure.
Black-eyed Junco
Black-capped Chickadee and House Sparrow (on top of hook)
Smug Male Northern Cardinal
House Sparrows
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