February 2021

This year, Selena and our Daughter, Tiffnie Schindler Gonzales, both participated in the Great Back Yard Bird Count, communicating back and forth about their sightings. It was neat to see the interaction between the two. Selena’s not set up to take pics the way Tiff is, so the only pics included are Tiff’s.

Keith, the K in The SnK.

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I never thought it could get this cold in south Texas. The Great Backyard Bird count was also scheduled 12-15 of February, the coldest winter days since 1989,

WOW! In my backyard alone I counted 1,850 birds, and probably fed that many as well, meadowlarks, green jays, cardinals, mocking birds, titmouse, chickadees, gold finches, yellow warblers, song sparrows, chipping sparrows, and hermit thrush.

One of the neatest things about this years count is my daughter, Tiffnie Gonzales, also did her first GBBC this year in her own back yard. She’s also a pretty good bird photographer so anytime she had a bird that she couldn’t id she sent me a picture.

I’m pretty good at bird id, been a birder for many years so we were able to id her birds and she had lots of interesting ones for her count up south of Denton.

Selena, the S in The SnK

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I was excited to participate in the Backyard Bird Count my first time this year, the couple of months prior I was seeing a huge variety at my feeders, including some birds I’d never seen before.

I made a trip to Tractor Supply to stock up on suet, seeds and peanuts then started putting them out a couple weeks ahead of time to “get the word out.” Friday, February 14th we had a winter storm move in which brought an unusual amount of snow to our area, and rolling blackouts.

Monday we lost power completely and were without for almost 2 solid days, compared to others we were lucky. I continued to count birds from our bathroom windows and would occasionally venture outside to throw out seed or try to get a photograph when I saw something new.

If I needed help with an ID I’d text a picture to my mom (Selena, the “S” of the SnK) and we’d figure it out together, long distance. We didn’t have numbers as impressive as what mom saw at The SnK, but we still have way more variety than we did at our previous home and I enjoy watching them.

Tiffnie Gonzales, the Daughter

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We hope that Y’all might mark the Great Backyard Bird Count on your calendars, for 2020!