eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Hi,

My mother-in-law, Joanne, asked a "simple" question...

This occurred to me this morning: maybe you could do a quick blog on where our backyard birds go when they leave us for the winter. Goldfinches, robins, etc.

Now, for those of you who haven't been following this blog and who don't know my background, I spent 7 years (and 40,000 phone calls) working for an outsourcer for Microsoft Technical Support... So I'm pretty sure of the validity of the following statement concerning a request for info... When someone asks for a "quick" bit of fact, plan on a long, arduous haul towards a decent answer. Joanne didn't break the rule.

Here was the thought process used to address her question...

1. Oh Lord, someone must have dealt with this before in some kind of on-line format! (A quick search of the Web didn't turn up an elegant solution.)
2. I could reiterate the techniques for making effective Web searches. (Naw, that's dodging the question.)
3. Break out the books and try to manually map what bird goes where in what months, and then feed that into a spreadsheet. I actually started that process, and then came to my senses.
4. Go back to step 1.

So Joanne, here's your answer... As I should have guessed right from the beginning, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has provided a brilliant solution to your request. See their Project FeederWatch. My preferences on that site are as follows:

• Both the "Single Map" and the "Two Maps" tabs are neat! (You might want to start with just a single map.)
• I set the bird "Species" as desired.
• Ditto for the "Region".
• As for the "Map Type" features, I use "2005 - 2006 season" and "Animated month-by-month".
• Finally click on the "Go to map" button and wait.

So there it is Joanne... An elegant answer in animation no less...

L by the feeders,

A (aka CapeCodAlan)

P.S. What's that? You want a bird pic? Well, fair enough! How about a grackle with a beak full of bread?