Great Backyard Bird Count: Coming to a Backyard Near You!

Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:20 am

I will be playing this one. Take a second or two and see if it looks like fun to you.

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

Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:18 pm

The Great Backyard Bird Count takes place from February 13 through 16 this year. Charlie's link is to the GBBC main site.

I'll do my best, but my bird ID skills are fairly poor. Maybe one of these will be the day that a flock of finches swoops through my yard!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

P.S. to Charlie MV: I moved your post so that more people have a shot at seeing it.

Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:24 am

Thanks, Charlie! I'm sending this on to a couple other forums.

Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:54 am

Well, it rained so much here today (:D) that there was no possibility of observing birds, except for the crows that huddled in our redwood tree. But we need rain (and the mountains need snow) so badly that almost no one is complaining.

Maybe over the weekend...

Cynthia

Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:49 am

I counted 11 species so far Wing.You've surely counted more with a handle like yours.

C, thanks for moving the thread as necessary. Not sure where I had it.

Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:04 am

{chuckling} Thanks, Charlie, but the Wings I design are only Gold. Well, with the occasional Red ("Let's Go, Red Wings!").
I like my raptors, but don't see many here in suburbia. Although there was a big ole red-shouldered hawk that blew in the local strip mall and scared away the pigeons for a couple of days. You think with all that free food he would'a hung around for a while.

Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:12 pm

A little off topic, but reading about the hawk reminded me about our Bubi. An eagle-owl called Bubi has been living around the Helsinki Olympic stadium since January 2007. It became famous when it attended a football match between Finland and Belgium in June 2007, during the qualifying for the European Football Championship tournament. After having watched the game for 17 minutes from the upper part of the stand for spectators, Bubi decided to participate and started to hover among the players. The match had to be stopped for 6 minutes until Bubi left the field. Finland eventually won the match 2- 0 and Bubi became the unofficial mascot of the Finnish football team. Bubi has last been seen near the stadium in November 2008 and will hopefully be there again when more activities start.

Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:03 am

How cool, Solveig! Got any photos (news) of the lil' feller? Do they migrate? Maybe he just flew south for winter? Or maybe he was just refereeing? :lol:

Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:59 am

This post is screwey. The heading says it has 4 reads and 0 replies. i always have problems with counting and sometimes confuse colors but there is more than 0 reply here. it also seems to be stuck in the second position. Shouldn't it float away or something?

Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:46 pm

wingdesigner wrote:Got any photos (news) of the lil' feller?

Here is a short video of Bubi taking part in the football game http://www.iltasanomat.fi/videot/?cat=1&id=1381452
In December 2007 Bubi was chosen Ã¢â‚¬

Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:40 am

CharlieMV, of course the thread is screwy, who started it??? (looking around and ducking) It may be it was spammed and the WM had to make some corrections. Had that just happen to one of my threads.

Solveig--cool video, as usual! IMO, it looks like he's circling around, searching for his handler. The way he was approaching people it looks like he's had some falconry training and either flunked, escaped, or was turned out to fend for himself. Not that anyone would have stuck their arm out, he's a pretty big boy, that one! But I bet he would have landed. Didn't see any jesses, but that doesn't mean anything. Intriguing.

Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:52 am

OK, just watched the second video. First--cute commercial--don't need to understand the language! Second, Bubi has his own skybox (that's what we call the luxury boxes here) for free; I'm jealous. Third, I can't believe no one was in attendance at the stadium, or was that for security reasons? Fourth, he looks similar to what we call a Great Horned Owl, but ours has more white on the breast.
Again, thanks for the cool videos!

Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:00 am

Ooh, ooh, Charlie, I think I figured it out! It looks like this thread was moved from the original location and a chunk of it got left behind. (proud)

Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:45 pm

wingdesigner wrote:he looks similar to what we call a Great Horned Owl

Well, they belong to the same genus, Bubo. Great Horned Owls are Bubo virginianus and Bubi is an Eurasian Eagle Owl, Bubo bubo.

The reason there wasnÃ‚Â´t any audience at the stadium, when Bubi got his award, is probably because nobody actually thought that Bubi was going to be present himself. Bubi hadnÃ‚Â´t been seen for about 3 months, but then he unexpectedly arrived well-timed for the ceremony.

Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:25 am

Amazing! Uncanny. Glad they went through with the ceremony.

I still think a professional falconer should show up and try calling him.