Nature Done Wright

We had 25 entries in the weekend Birdy 30 contest– and an improvised category or two.

The intrepid Julie McCall had 18 avian species plus a mink from the Warden's Watch.

Georgie Thomas stayed indoors in Massachusetts and had 16 species (including a Bald Eagle) in 16-degree weather.

Other indoor N.J. high counts: Charley West had 15 species, and Ken Witkowski, Stephanie Seymour had Leslie Kruegel all had 14 apiece. (Leslie, too, had a Bald Eagle.)

Bird of the Weekend was a Baltimore Oriole, seen by Joe Koscielny.

Photo of the Weekend (above) was submitted by Barbara Dilger, taken with her feeder cam. She writes:

"The camera only gets the ones that sit on it. The others on the suet or the ground eaters have to be seen the old-fashioned way, through the window. But it’s kind of neat to watch them close up on this – I see some behaviors. What I learned is the Song Sparrow is a bit of a bully and a big eater."

Instead of a bird's eye view, Barbara got a bird's feeder view.

I hope the little event enlivened a cold, cold weekend.

Congrats to all participants, and thanks for being guinea pigs as I finetune the contest. In the future, I think there should two categories, indoor and outdoor, and I should state that heard birds also count in the 30-minute tally.

Please send me your feedback. I hope to have another Birdy 30 two weekends from now and ask readers of my column in The Record to participate.