Animals Galore!

I'm super excited about the following weekend (Feb 18-Feb 21) because the annual Great Backyard Bird Count will take place then. This is a four day event that calls on all bird watchers to come together to count birds!!! Of course, it will not be a pointless activity, but we will have to report our results online which will be tallied to create a real-time snapshot of where birds are across the continent.

Participants can count birds ANYWHERE for as little or as long as they wish during the four day period, but unfortunately this only takes place in the United States and Canada. Otherwise you can be sure I'll be calling all you friends to join me in this activity!!!!

I've already started practicing. I told Dad about it the night before and he immediately refilled the bird feeders. So this morning, while i was chewing on my sandwich, I was also eagerly looking out the window checking out the birds to see what kinds we have out there. Sad to say, because I'm such an amateur, I could only identify the most obvious ones like the cardinal and the blue jay. I scanned the list of birds on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to identify the other mystery birds in the yard to no avail. Partly because I need a pair of binoculars to look up close, the birds fly around too energetically for my liking(!) and I have to be less squirmy. Everytime i got out of my chair to move closer to the window, the birds, sensing movement, fly away. I wonder how i am going to be able to sit outside during that weekend, in the cold, without the slightest movement. But I will persevere!!! The best part about it is I get 3 days out of the 4 off work! I don't have to work that Friday, Saturday and Monday!!!!! And from now till then, I am going to familiarize myself with the bird species and get me a pair of binoculars (i think Dad has one somewhere, for his hunting needs).

So far these are the brightly coloured, easy-to-spot little friends out in the backyard:


The pretty Blue Jay


The Cardinal


The Red Bellied Woodpecker


All images via The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

In other news, I'm also reading this super interesting animal book called The Peaceable Kingdom - A Year in the Life of America's Oldest Zoo by John Sedgwick. The author spent a year at the Philadelphia Zoo interacting with the staff and animals and this book recounts his experiences through the seasons. It's funny and informative, and gives a heartwarming account of the individual animals that live (and die) at the zoo. My favourite section is about the pachyderms -- the elephants (of course) and the rhinos. It makes me want to go work in a zoo now!!!

If you happen to come across the book, read it!