|
Kathy
Marie Gaider participates in Project FeederWatch and
takes fabulous wildlife photos from her home in Dauphin,
Manitoba. She has been FeederWatching since 1998,
shortly after she moved to her current home.
Like
many FeederWatchers, Kathy's first interest in birds
came from feeding birds in her yard. When she bought
her home, there were empty feeders in the yard. She
filled them, and soon an unknown bird appeared. She
searched through "fifty pages" in her field
guide before finally discovering that she had a Pine
Grosbeak (pictured at right).
|
 |
|
Soon
after, she heard about the Christmas Bird Count and
Project FeederWatch, and began watching and counting
birds.
Kathy
counts her birds for FeederWatch while sitting at
the large bay window in her living room. She also
watches birds from her back windows and from her back
deck, where she enjoys photographing the birds. One
of her Pine Grosbeak photos was featured on the 2003-2004
Bird Watching Days calendar. She says she watches
birds, "every weekend all year, eight hours a
day. It has become an obsession!"
|
|
Feeders,
feed, and tips
The
Gaiders have three feeders, two small and one large.
Kathy found that the birds visiting her feeders do
not like the mixes, so she feeds only black-oil sunflower
seeds. Kathy
recommends feeding birds year-round, forgetting the
expensive seeds and mixes, and keeping feeders clean.
|
|
Habitat
Living
in a rural area, 500 feet from Riding Mountain National
Park, birds, like the Blue Jay pictured at right, naturally
find Kathy's yard. The Gaiders have planted maple trees,
a 6000 square foot garden, and are now developing an
orchard with apple and cherry trees. |
 |
|
Weather
During
the FeederWatch season, the average daytime temperature
in Dauphin, is -15° to -25° C, according to Kathy.
Sometimes it gets down to -40° C at night. The snow
cover is inconsistent, from about two feet some years
to very little in drought years.
|
 |
Kathy
has been conducting an informal study of the weather's
affects on the birds in her yard. For example, she reports,
"When the Pine Grosbeaks (pictured left) have arrived
early, we've had above normal snowfall." It's too
soon yet for her to know if Pine Grosbeaks can forecast
snowfall over the longterm, but if they can, Kathy will
probably be the one to find out.
|
|
Evening
Grosbeaks |
| Kathy
has been keeping track of her Evening Grosbeak counts
ever since she started FeederWatching. She created the
graph below, which shows the variation in the number
of Evening Grosbeaks in her yard within and across seasons.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some
of the Evening Grosbeaks that visit Kathy's yard.
|
|
Kathy
Gaider's 2003-2004 counts
As
can be seen from Kathy's online summary chart for
most of the 2003-2004 FeederWatch season (below),
Kathy attracts a nice variety of birds to her feeders.
For everyone who has been wondering where all the
Evening Grosbeaks and Pine Grosbeaks have gone, apparently
they have all gone to Kathy's yard!
|
|
|
All
photos were taken by Kathy Marie Gaider.
|
