As the sun sets on the end of my current Project FeederWatch day, I'll recap Weeks 4 through 7.
Week 4 was December 7 - 8, moderate temps in the twenties and still no snow on the ground yet. Out of the 72 individuals seen, 50 of them were of 3 species.
A
Sharp-shinned Hawk paid a visit, as he has in 3 of the previous 4 count periods. Here's what I saw in Week 4:
Blue Jay 17
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Black capped Chickadee 5
Dark-eyed Junco 17
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Mourning Dove 16
Downy Woodpecker 2
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
American Goldfinch 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
American Crow 4
SPECIES 12
INDIVIDUALS 72HIGH COUNT BIRDMy high count bird was a tie between the "J" birds - that is,
juncos and
jays!
DOUBLE DIGIT BIRDSSpecies showing up in double digit numbers include the jays and juncos mentioned as well as 16
doves.
MIAStill no
cardinal...I assume he's moved on, to my disappointment.
THE FIRST 15 MINUTESIt was fast out of the gate this morning with half of my species and 30 individuals of the 72 individuals showing up in the first 15 minutes of the count.

Mourning Doves
BEHAVIOR TIDBIT
The big flock of doves hung around most of the day. It seemed everytime I counted, there were a tight 14-16 doves to be found.
Week 5 were short days for me as the store got busier for Christmas. I only watched for 4 1/2 hours over the 2 day count. Good news is that snow has arrived - there was a good 12" of snow on the ground for week 5, December 14-15.

Goldfinches and Junco
Here's what I reported in this shortened count:
Blue Jay 23
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Black capped Chickadee 3
Dark-eyed Junco 12
Mourning Dove 7
Downy Woodpecker 2
Tufted Titmouse 2
American Goldfinch 1
SPECIES 8
INDIVIDUALS 52
Blue Jay at window tray feeder
DOUBLE DIGIT BIRDS Even on this shortened watch, both
jays and
juncos were double digit birds. These kind of jay counts are unusually high, as the PFW site asks for confirmation of jay numbers this high.
Week 6 was another short count period, only 2 hours total. But again, the jays did not disappoint - my high count of
jays was 32.
21 Blue Jays in the plum treeHere's the recap for December 21 - 22:
Blue Jay 32
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Black capped Chickadee 7
Dark-eyed Junco 5
Mourning Dove 4
Downy Woodpecker 1
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
SPECIES 9
INDIVIDUALS 55 BEHAVIOR TIDBITI started my count at daybreak starting at 7:15a that Monday. It was only 17 degrees out and the jays seemed to sleep in.
Chickadees,
titmice,
juncos, and a
red-breasted nuthatch were already busy at the feeders by the time the first wave of 14 jays swept in around 7:35a.
Week 7 was back to a longer count, watching a total of 11 hours.
Jays continue to dominate, and the
Sharp-shinned Hawk also continues to cooperate by showing up on count days. I haven't seen him catch anything though...
Blue Jay on suet logHere's the recap of Week 7, gaining in individuals AND species as I have a longer time to observe:
Blue Jay 28
Dark-eyed Junco 18
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Black capped Chickadee 19
Tufted Titmouse 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Mourning Dove 7
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
American Goldfinch 5
SPECIES 11
INDIVIDUALS 87
Black-capped Chickadee DOUBLE DIGIT BIRDSJays,
juncos, and
chickadees. These large groups accounted for 65 of the 87 individuals seen!
BEHAVIOR TIDBITI started counting at 8:15a on the first count day and the jays, juncos, chickadees, hairy, tufties, and downy were all at the feeders by the time I started. The doves didn't roll in until over an hour later, both the nuthatches didn't show up until noon, and the hawk came through around 1:15. There is no time pattern that the hawk has been making its appearances, sometimes a.m. - sometimes p.m.
American Goldfinch
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