Birding

 As you may have guessed if you ever read this post that I am a bird watcher. I is called birding. I like to see the little, (and some big) feathered critters. I really like it when they eat unwanted bugs in my yard. But I don't think there is enough natural wild foods for birds any more so I put out a bit of sunflower seeds, millet, and other seeds as wells as some suet cakes for the birds. 

For those that don't know there are a few organizations that do an annual bird count to see if the bird population is declining or improving. I understand that the song bird population has been declining in recent years. Other than not using so many chemicals in the gardens and on farmers crops I am not sure we can do much. But I do my part by feeding the birds. I have not used chemicals in my garden or flower beds ever that I can remember. 

 So this year I decided to do the annual bird count this weekend when I saw it being advertised by one of the local wild life centers here in Kentucky. I went to the website  -ebird- and tried to set up an account like it said to do. It took almost 20 minutes to set up an account as it didn't want to recognize my address and had trouble recognizing Kentucky. Finally got to where I could put in the birds I see and started with woodpeckers as we have about 4 different kinds here. Only it gave a list for ALL the woodpeckers in the world and I was supposed to chose the right one. Had to go through this for all four kinds. Decided to do doves next and couldn't believe how many doves there are in the world and I had no idea what kind we have here. Had the same problems with chickadees, sparrows and even robins. I got out my bird books but have never been sure exactly what kind of little birds we have here. After a hour of fighting with an extremely complicated website I said to heck with it and got off. 

   Someone wants people to do this for them but makes it so hard you give up. So what is the point. I wouldn't have got anything out of it except to know I did it. Why does it have to be so complicated???

   This is not the only web site that is making every thing on their sites more and more complicated. Just like this blog, which is run by google. I used to be able to just click one place and put my photos on. Now I have to click at least 3 places and sometimes more to put the photos on. Plus putting labels on is a lot more trouble. Just saying. With more and more people staying home do to Corvid and bad weather we would like to be able to do a few things at home 'just for the fun of it', 

I will just keep my own little list of the birds I see.