My tight-timeframe Wednesday birding routine started in March and carried on through December. Over that span I missed 7 mid-week morning appointments with the birds, but still completed 33 checklists accounting for 61 species.

Starlings were evident on 20 surveys, crows turned up on 19, and a handful of species appeared 11 times: robin, bluebird, a sparrow, and goldfinch.

I added fully a third of the species during October, when I extended my walks beyond the normal door-to-door route, liberated by the completion of our busy event season. Of my grand total 272 counting minutes, 172 were in October.

I learned it's a good day when 9 different species make themselves known on a 3-minute, 30-rod stroll up to campus and that most of those will be the "usual suspects."

This wasn't earth-shaking ornithology, but it did feed eBird. I tallied individuals in real time and immediately submitted the results to that collaborative database using the BirdLog app. It's citizen science at the Wells Reserve, one step at a time.