Personal Bird Lists

Winter Yard List Competition
Most of the birders I know keep various lists. There are, Life Lists, Yard Lists, Winter Lists, Provincial Lists, Feeder Lists and I know of more than one person who keep a Pond List (I suppose if I spent over $6000 on a “water feature” I would too). A Life List is all the birds you have seen in your life, anywhere, period. A Provincial List is self explanatory, but people who travel frequently maintain several Provincial Lists (I have frequent visits by a man from Texas trying to add to his New Brunswick List). The milestone for the NB list is 300 birds, there is a party and cake, you get Jim Edsall to carve that species for the mantel, but NB lists can go over 365 species.
A Yard List is the birds you see or hear from your yard, most don’t limit it to birds that are actually in or above your yard, that would make your list proportionate to the size of your property. So anything you can see or hear while keeping at least one foot “in bounds” can go on the list. Our yard list is 104 species, which I thought was OK, I recently heard of one totaling 155 and one over 170, time to dust of the binoculars and brush up on the bird sounds. My Yard List and my NB List are very similar, I don’t get out much.
A Winter List starts on the first day of December (mid-night) and ends on the last day of February. The New Brunswick Winter List is around 160 species for the 3 month period.
So I would like to propose a little friendly competition…..a 2009-2010 Winter Yard List. I like this idea because it starts everyone off on the same level; zero and since it only takes place in your back yard it doesn’t violate the Kyoto Accord by having people taking off to Edmonston every week end. This is an interesting activity that anyone can participate in, family, friends, the dog (setters and spaniels will “point” out birds), you could even hire a naturalist if you really want to win, as long as they are in your yard. Dead rarities drug home by the cat absolutely do not count, please don’t even tell me about them. To sweeten the pot a bit the grand prize is the 4-10 bird feeder pole with squirrel/raccoon baffle, 4 bird feeders and a supply of seed and suet. (Everything you’ll need to win next year.)
The rules for the contest are: count everything you see or hear during the count period (December 1 - February 28). Any species really out of the ordinary might need to be authenticated, a photo will be great. Anything you know is rare and you are having a hard time identifying, give me a call or e-mail and I should be able to check it out or get someone I know from your area to lend a hand. Use the range maps in the field guide as a base of reference, they will tell you what is and is not expected. Escapees won’t count so stay away from the pet store; you laugh but as overly competitive people get older this is all we have left. The Judges (Me) will have the final say.
A few pointers if you want to have the biggest list:
Get started counting December 1, make sure your feeders are well stocked for a couple weeks before and get counting on the first day. There will no doubt be some stragglers that have yet to migrate, if you wait until January to identify them they will probably be gone.
Try to identify as many of the sparrow and similar species as you can. The judges will not allow LBB as a species. LBB standing for little brown bird, a term used by lazy birders. If you have a decent guide and binoculars you might be able to count 8-10 species that often get written off a LBB’s. Scattering some white millet around the ground or on a platform feeder will help attract the ones that don’t eat sunflower seed.
Suet and especially a peanut butter suet mix will attract quite a few insect eating birds. The Woodpeckers, Nuthatch, Chickadee would be common visitors and possibly Kinglet, Mockingbird, a late Oriole or something really rare could be expected on the suet mix.
Fruit will attract another variety of birds, you might want to collect some berries now and freeze them for feeding later in the winter. You can also feed cut up apples, grapes, frozen bananas and par-boiled raisins to attract Oriole, Bohemian and Cedar Waxwing, Robins, Mockingbird and other rarities.
Water will make a big difference, if you have a heated birdbath or a birdbath heater for your existing bath you will be able to offer water throughout the whole count period. If not put water out in the morning of mild days, use something that you can pop the ice out of, the larger plastic trays that go under potted plants work well and if you’re like Martha Stewart you can make an ice sculpture out of all the discs you’ll have.
Don’t forget to scan the horizon for birds. Use binoculars or a scope to check as far as you can. You should be able to add hawks, eagles, geese, ducks and others that might not necessarily come into your yard. Use second story windows to look around the neighborhood, if it’s at the feeder next door you can count it. Check local building codes before erecting any towers.
As long as you are doing this anyway, you might as well do the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). There is a need for “Feeder Watchers”, you can submit the species you see over the whole CBC period and do an extended watch on “count day” for your section. Contact Nature Moncton (the group formerly known as the Moncton Naturalist Club, until it was discovered that confusion with the Nudist Club was affecting enrollment), and they will give you the kit you’ll need. For those outside Moncton, contact your local nature clubs, a list is on the Nature New Brunswick website.
Finally, I have compiled a basic list of species you could see in and over your yard. There are 80 species, you won’t see them all and there will certainly be some birds you see that aren’t on the list, non-typical yard birds, like the ones you’ll see flying by aren’t all listed and I didn’t bother to list all rarities that have been seen in the past during the winter count periods. I will have copies of the list at the Moncton Market starting Saturday (today) at no charge or contact me if you can’t make it.
I’ve started a separate “Winter Yard List” photo album for the contest and I’ll post pictures and names of contributors along with their running totals. This is just a friendly competition to help us get through another long Maritime winter. Here’s to late snow cover, reasonable temperatures and big lists!

written by Dwayne Biggar at The Bird Garden