Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)

[Steve Backes]

I dropped the ball on this one.

Tomorrow is the last day to submit a report for this year's Great Backyard Bird Count and the count was Friday through Monday, Feb 12th - 15th. If you know that you saw a numbers of birds in your yard over that weekend, especially hummingbirds, you can still submit a report by going to www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ and click on "Submit Your Bird Checklist".

I want to encourage anyone hosting hummingbirds to take part in future GBBCs by submitting checklists that at least count the numbers of hummingbirds in your yard. This will be one step towards showing the numbers of hummingbirds wintering in Florida as well as where they are.

In the past few years, Valrico has been near the top of the list for communities reporting the most Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in the country. In most cases, my report has been the only one for Valrico while the other communities average between 1 and 2 birds per count.

gbbc.birdsource.org/gbbcApps/report?cmd=showReport&reportName=SpeciesLocation&species=rthhum&year=2010

[nprice7047]

I reported mine here in Stuart for Friday Sat Sun & Mon., had someone from GBBC e-mail me and asked if this was correct, he was not acquainted with our birds. I think I had at least 4 or 5 each day.

[John Bakas]

Thanks Steve. I added the 2 RTH we see in our yard since about Jan 16.

We saw 1 RTH beginning Jan 12 and about Jan 16 1 we began seeing 2.

We have seen 1 or 2 RTH every day since Jan 12.

We also took took these pictures posted on Shuterfly as best we could. These pictures were taken in the middle of Jan.

John
Riverview

[Steve Backes]

nprice,

Yes, they have a review process for any out-of-the-ordinary sighting to ensure relatively accurate reporting. That's a good thing. Hopefully in time, with more of these reports, multiple Ruby-throated sightings in Florida will no longer be deemed exceptional.