Exciting Event for ABC Wednesday

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming, As the Cardinals Fly, to bring you this important announcement.  From our Bird-on-a-Wire Service, we have learned that the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and Etudes D'Oiseaux/Bird Studies Canada are partners with Wild Bird Unlimited in sponsoring the Great American Bird Count this weekend, February 17-20, an exciting three-day event 

Keep your eyes on the birds for as little as 15 minutes and be a "birder" for the day!  For all the details and the reasons why this is important, please visit the Great Back Yard Bird count website at Bird Source.  

GBBC is fun to do and you get feedback from a local "expert" if you have come up with a bird rarely seen in your locale.  My first year I counted several Purple Finches and the Michigan ornithologist questioned my seeing them here as they are rare in SW Michigan in the winter.  But I had luckily photographed the finches I thought were Purples not House or Rosey.  I sent him the photo and he replied, "yep, those are Purples!"  However, I still have trouble distinguishing Woody and Hairy Woodpeckers, the other lookalikes around here.

Here is one of my photos from last year's GBBC, a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Ease yourself on over to ABC Wednesday for ever exacting,  exotic, but hardly evanescent contributions to  E-day from Mrs. Nesbitt's emphatically enthusiastic bloggers.