Trail report

It’s springtime and the birds are chirping. Take a walk—or look out your window—to discover who your avian friends are and what they are up to.

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Don't forget, you have until 11:59 pm tonight to enter the drawing for the Kids in the Garden book.

Yeah! We have another guest post here on YWC. Michael is always posting photos from his fun adventures with his son, Patrick. They take nature walks, visit science museums, watch fish at aquariums, pick raspberries at farms....I could go on, but instead I'll let Michael get a word in here.

Michael D. Barton, lives in Butte, MT while going to school in Bozeman; blogs at The Dispersal of Darwin.

Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Portland, OR

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Hummingbirds are a fun species for kids to watch, in fact they are a little like kids--moving rapidly, not focusing on one thing for very long and eating constantly. Planting a garden that attracts hummingbirds is fun both in the planting and in the watching of birds.

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It can be hard to watch wildlife in winter. Animals are often snugged up in dens, perched in trees or otherwise out of sight.

Animal signs, on the other hand, are easier to find in winter than any other time of year--assuming there is snow. A blanket of snow is an animal detective's best friend. Every time a critter takes a step, they leave an impression of who they are, where they are going and how much of a hurry they are in.

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Pretty soon birds will be migrating and we can expect to see those species that have been absent throughout the winter. Birdwatching is a great way to connect with your kids while connecting to nature.

The Great Backyard Bird Count people have a few tips on attracting birds.

• The first is about choosing the right bird food for the birds you want to attract. Many ground-feeding species, such as juncos and sparrows are attracted to white millet, while chickadees, titmice, cardinals, and nuthatches are among the popular feeder birds that favor black-oil sunflower seeds.
• The feeder placement article discusses where to put your feeder, of course, but also how and why to keep it clean and how to guard against cats and squirrels.

There is also information on bird feeding myths, how to select a feeder and bird watching tools.

Did you participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count last week?

We counted birds for 2 of the 4 days. To be honest, we didn't see a lot of bird diversity during the GBBC. If I had made more of an effort we could have headed down to the river to look for bald eagles, rough legged hawks, kingfishers, chickadees and other birds. Instead we saw sparrows and magpies. Not that I don't appreciate all birds, but some are a little more fun to see than others.

In Montana 17,881 Canada geese were reported by 137 people, 231 in Livingston where I live. Montanans saw 1 snowy owl.

Snowy owl

You can check out the results of the GBBC here. You can view the results by state, look at the maproom, see if your location made the top ten or see which species were most sighted.

If you want to ID birds, I recommend the Sibley Guide--that's what we use.

The Sibley Guide to Birds (Audubon Society Nature Guides Ser.) by David Allen Sibley

There are also Eastern and Western guides.

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America by David Allen Sibley, Rick Cech

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America by David Allen Sibley

I like to use guidebooks that are most specific to the area I'm in. That way there are less choices and I'm more likely to find what I'm looking at. So, we use the Western version.

Did you count birds today? It's the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count.

My count was kind of dismal. I watched at our birdfeeders with my son and there wasn't a whole lot going on.

Here is the report:

Locality: 59047, Livingston, Park County, MT
Observation Date: FEB 13, 2009
Start Time: 9:15 AM
Total Birding Time: 15 minutes
Party Size: 2
Skill: good
Weather: excellent
Snow Depth: No snow was present
Number of Species: 3
All Reported: yes
Checklist:
Black-billed Magpie - 1
Black-capped Chickadee - 2
House Sparrow - 6

Maybe tomorrow we'll try down by the river.

What did you see?