Friday Farm Photo: The Great Backyard Bird Count Starts Today—and You're Invitied To Join In!

We counted over 40 wild turkeys in the hayfield last Friday—a new record.

Warmer temperatures and lack of snow in parts of North America have set the stage for what could be a most intriguing 15th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, which runs from Friday, February 17th through Monday, February 20th.

Bird and nature fans throughout North America are invited to take part in this neat four-day event, a joint project between The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada (BSC) that engages bird watchers in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent.

Anyone can participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from novice bird watchers to experts. It's a great opportunity for families, students, and people of all ages to discover the wonders of nature in backyards, schoolyards, and local parks while making an important contribution to conservation.

It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It's free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds. Last year, an estimated 60,000 bird watchers submitted over 92,000 checklists online. There were 596 species observed and over 11.4 million individual birds counted.

For more information, check out the Great Backyard Bird Count website. Details on how you can participate are here, and you can read more about the GBBC here. You can learn more about birds in general at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website. And at WeLoveBirds.org, bird-lovers can share stories and information about birds and help protect birds from activities that harm them and their habitat.

Happy counting!

© FarmgirlFare.com, where we're fortunate to be surrounded by all sorts of birds on the farm, but my favorites are definitely the gorgeous wild geese that migrate twice a year overhead (we just saw some this morning!) and this amazing little owl that showed up one cold and windy, heartwrenching morning back in 2008 and stayed for most of the day.

Farm Photo 11/6/07: Hayfield Grazing Rights

Wild Turkeys Up Front, Sheep Toward The Back

Wild turkeys are plentiful in these parts, and there are two females who have been living in the woods at the edge of our hayfield for years. Once when we were walking along the field's perimeter, Robin trotted out of a thicket with an enormous turkey egg proudly clasped between her little beagle jaws. (We put it back.) Each spring the mothers parade around in the grass with their babies lined up behind them. If we're lucky we catch a glimpse of flying lessons.

I think the babies usually venture off on their own once they've grown up, but a few weeks ago a flock of eight turkeys started spending hours each day in the hayfield, happily pecking around for bugs and whatever else wild turkeys like to eat.

They aren't bothered by the sheep in the least, and the other evening I watched as they completely ignored three deer who were leaping around playing right next to them. When Bear and I appear, though, they always run off to the safety of the woods. We did manage to sneak up on them the other day, and I was able to quickly zoom in to 16x with my trusty little camera and snap a few halfway decent photos before they noticed us.

Yesterday morning I was surprised to see them hanging out down by the spring. This time they fled by flight, flapping into the air in their ungraceful turkey way and landing just a few yards into the woods. Then they continued on foot, crashing up the hillside through the fallen leaves while gobbling excitedly to each other.

It kind of feels like turkeys are taking over the farm. I guess they know we usually have beef on Thanksgiving.

Want to see more?
There are more hayfield photos here.
Lots of farm landscape photos here.
Plenty of autumn color here.
And you'll find all sorts of sheep pictures here.

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote acres.