I signed up for the Great Backyard Bird Count that took place last weekend.  I thought it would be easy to count the number of birds at the tray feeder on my deck.  When I have coffee in the morning I watch the action there so I thought I would record the number of visitors.  It turned out to be no easy feat.

The pad of paper and pen were handy.  The coffee was hot.  I decided to record visits for a half hour.  At the end of the time limit my coffee was cold and untouched.  I couldn't keep up with the redpoll tally.  

A couple of weeks ago I thought the redpolls were gone but the shelled sunflower seeds in the tray feeder acted like a magnet.  They came from every direction possible.  It was a flurry of activity until the blue jays came.  When the jays left, the redpolls were back.  In thirty minutes, I counted 85 visits to the feeder.  There were a few chickadees and a couple nuthatches that managed to grab a few seeds but for the most part the little finches stole the show.