No, GBBC is not a bander's code, it is the great backyard bird count, which 
most of you probably realize, but this should be a great weekend for it.  A nice 
mix of mostly very cold weather with a little bit of above-freezing weather, to 
thaw just enough water to congregate birds - and make it exciting!  Have fun 
birding!

Pardon me for rambling, but I was wondering if this week's storm is responsible 
for the relatively few posts on Osprey due to: power outage (like me); or if 
the local birds have scattered; or if people are simply frozen and don't want to 
go out to look for birds!  Maybe a bit of all the above.  Here in southern PG 
County it was truly disastrous, with damage comparable to when Hurricane 
Isabel blew us away in 2003.  There are so many damaged trees, it was 
especially harsh to anywhere with forested edges, where frozen trees heavily 
laden with ice got exposed to high winds and busted up like kindling.  Sounded 
like gun-fire in a war: with constant snaps, pops, and CRRAACK as the big 
ones broke.

No power, no water, it was pretty harsh for almost 2 days (44 hours) in very 
cold weather.  Our house temp (with a fire burning constantly in the fireplace) 
got down to 40.1 F.  Even after the storm was past, throughout Thursday it 
was generally hazardous just walking around the yard, at least anywhere that 
had trees overhead - the ice kept breaking and flying off - I got nailed twice 
in the head during the course of the day, and once with a big piece that I was 
lucky not to get the business end of it or it may have cut me pretty bad.

All that said, it was very exciting to be home and watch the birds.  We have 8 
feeder stations, and 3 need fixed.  I left them on the ground among all the 
debris, filling them constantly, and I think that due to all the branches down 
around the feeders, the birds got very brave, and congregated here.  It was 
very exciting.

On Wednesday I had 7 sparrow species, and on Thursday and Friday I had 8.  
Even in the peak of migration, this would be amazing.  Surprisingly, no 
savannahs or white-crowneds.  Best sparrow was Am. tree sparrow, here for 
three days now; only second property record.  Strangest was swamp - one in 
the yard with the song and white throats, scratching around in the grass and 
feeding with them.  8 sparrows = Am. tree (1), white-throated (~75), junco 
(~30), song (7), swamp, fox (5!), field (2), and E. towhee (2).

Also, the paddock area out front was puddled with water (Wed and Thurs), 
and before it froze solid (~ mid-morning Thurs) it held American pipits (9), the 
first I've ever had here.   We also had Killdeer (5) and Wilson's Snipe (2) in 
same area.  I looked many times, as the pipits moved around a lot, but no 
larks or other oddities (for here) joined them.

I am debating whether to clean up the branches and debris in the yard, in the 
bird feeding areas in particular.  It seems to attract the birds and I may just 
leave it there for a while!

Cheers-
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD