Project Feederwatch Season Ends

April 8 is the formal end date for Cornell's Lab of Ornithology's Project Feederwatch season. However, since I count weekends, this past weekend was my last count. I had a busy weekend, so I only managed to count on Sunday afternoon, so I didn't get many birds. I have been participating in Project Feederwatch for many years. It is gratifying to know that I can share the information I collect while participating in an activity I enjoy and benefit the birds. After I updated my information for the weekend, I looked at my summary for the year. Not surprisingly, I had the largest number of species and individuals during the snow storm in early February with 65 individuals of 13 species (Project Feederwatch methodology is to count the largest number of individuals seen at one time--so there were probably more than that present.) Also no suprise was that the highest number of any species seen at one time over the entire period was the white-winged dove, followed closely by the house sparrow. The dark-eyed junco also had good numbers. I'll look forward to seeing the consolidated report from Cornell later in the year, so see what the data says about birds throughout the US and Canada. If you don't already participate in Project Feederwatch, consider doing so next season, which starts in November. There is a small fee to take part, but well worth the money for the enjoyment. This would be a super activity for those who home school their children. In fact, there is a page just for this. There are many citizen science projects related to birds. Those sponsored by the Lab are listed here. Good birding!