Herb Houghton
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skibum5 wrote:
Very true.
I'm also in northern NJ and have seen at least 98 species of birds without leaving the structure of my house (i.e. sitting on my deck IS included). There were a few things I never quite got 100% on, but were surely something different, the real total is likely 103 or so.
And not just birds, various mammals including larger ones like coyotes and bear. Various reptiles and amphibians.
The real neat thing is how many types of moths one can find just on their back door screens alone! I've found dozens of types of little micro moths and such and a couple don't even seem to be in any ID lists and some others are first reports for region on BugGuide. So many don't pay attention or realize how many tons of various little moths of all sorts they have on their property. The smallest one I've found was only like 1mm long and at first glance seemed like a common small gnat! Try it and be amazed! Leave the back room lights on and then check out the back door screens!
(I'm fairly worried that the diversity will plunge for my yard for moths and birds though as the new neighbors came in and clear cut their entire yard, taking down 100-200 (literally, not exaggerating as the portion of the forest going right up to our backyard property borders and over is a very rare patch that is at least 185 years old, so they took down, tall, long bole before branching forest grown beauties, in a highlands forest preservation zone no less (sadly exempt because their lot was under 3 acres or something) year old maples and oaks, sadly including the only truly giant Red Oak and Black Oak within 60' feet or more of the property, what a sin. And I see they got some chemical service to come around every few weeks and spray pesticides all over their property AND mind since the company is so sloppy that half the time they just hold the nozzle straight up in the air and the stuff drifts down in clouds across the property line!
Birds love oak trees since they provide tons of food and they also tend to contain the highest number of moth species. We have mostly giant old sugar maples with some oaks mixed about, but the closest giant oaks were taken out by Sandy and then then neighbors. I think I probably saw about 70 of the 98 bird species in that one giant Red Oak the took down alone.  )
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Thanks for the detailed comment. I also have over 100 species, but that includes hooded mergansers and osprey that I'll see from my deck even though they don't come on my property much. 
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Thanks for the reply buddy.