by Lottie Bushmann

On Sunday, Feb. 15^th CAS hosted our Great Backyard Bird Count feeder crawl. It was a great success as 12 folks visited 5 different yards. Hosted by myself and Emma Buckingham, our morning started off at the first yard with a Brown Creeper that visits suet that is tied to a tree trunk. He was there as promised (when does THAT ever happen?). We got great views. Then onto a yard where the bluebirds thought it was spring—in their defense it was 60 degrees out—and we counted a whopping 23 species in just 20 minutes. Then onto a yard that had 4 Wild Turkeys on a back patio just a few feet from the windows. It was the closest views many of us had ever had. What a gorgeous bird. At our next yard we had a soaring red-shouldered hawk up in the air with a red-tailed hawk. It was a great opportunity to compare and see differences and how to identify them in flight. Our last yard had 3 Pileated Woodpeckers that gave everyone fairly close, nice views. They were very vocal and put on a nice show. As folks were leaving to go home, we had a visit from 3 Red tailed Hawks soaring with 3 Black Vultures. Again, they gave us great views to study their differences and how to identify them. It was a lovely morning spent with some lovely folks seeing how citizens attract birds to their yards.