The Great Backyard Bird Count

The spring-like weather is now long past. Yesterday when we got up the snow was gone and the sun was out but the wind was raging and the temperatures dropping. There is ice and snow in the forecast for tomorrow. We practiced the piano and read some favorite picture books and Calvin played with Legos while I hit the treadmill, then we packed off to the library for a presentation on Michigan wildlife. I think I've mentioned before how much I love our children's librarian for her rich and varied programming (I just hope impending budget cuts don't kill that).

A couple of days ago we finished our latest book of Oz so back at home Calvin wrote a summary of the book (I love watching his writing grow and develop) before dividing our house into the dominions of the Nome King King (the downstairs) and the lands of the Fellowship of Fairies (upstairs) and I enjoyed watching him scuttle around pretending I know not what. It is wise to stay out of the tube (stairs) connecting the two.

We've been looking forward to the Great Backyard Bird Count for a while now so we were more than ready for yesterday's kickoff. Calvin is keeping track of our observations in his journal and I'll grab a picture of that at the end of the count period, the last day of which is Monday. We observed our own backyard for one 15 minute block this morning, counting mostly grackles and our beloved bluebirds, and we descended upon my parents' house for a second block of counting time in the afternoon. As a general rule my mom, with her treed backyard, has a greater variety of birds at her feeder and we were looking forward to counting them. Instead we got a lesson in the importance of leaf cover, an the effects of a lack thereof, so we counted out her front window and saw about 13 crows zip by. After that it was all Legos. Today we'll stick to our own feeders and see what we get.

If the wind dies down tonight we will be taking part in a snow moon hike with the county parks and recreation, another thing we've been looking forward to all week.