DECATUR - After seeing nine species of birds Saturday morning, Pat Quintenz had started to think that was going to be it.

Then a small black-andwhite specimen lighted on one of her backyard birdfeeders, a male with spotted wings and a striped head with the characteristic red spot.

"It's a downy woodpecker, the first one I've seen all morning," she said, admiring him from her breezeway through a pair of binoculars. "He's pretty."

As the most common American woodpecker, it wasn't one she could add to the 400-plus species she has catalogued over more than 40 years of bird watching, but it was exciting all the same.

"I enjoy seeing all these wonderful birds flitting around," Quintenz said.

The 78-year-old Decatur woman is among area bird lovers taking part in the ninth annual Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend, sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.

Participants are asked to spend 15 minutes or more keeping track of the different species observed and the largest number of individuals seen at one time anytime through Monday.

Checklists may be submitted to www.bird-source.org/gbbc or by calling Backyard Birds at 864-2212, Wild Birds Unlimited at 872-3799 or Ross Thompson with the Decatur Audubon Society at 865-2981.

Scientists use information from the four-day count to monitor bird populations and migratory patterns.

Local bird-watchers Saturday reported seeing

BIRDS

Continued from B1 fewer varieties and smaller numbers, despite single-digit temperatures that often send more birds flocking to feeders.

Vickie Warner, owner of Backyard Birds in Decatur, said loss of habitat and the use of pesticides are to blame, as are the booming populations of sparrows and starlings.

"I used to have this little group of eight black-capped chickadees," she said. "Now, there are only four."

The West Nile virus has also claimed a number of blue jays, crows and great horned owls, according to Linda Worley, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Decatur.

Even so, birds of prey are making a comeback with the help of laws protecting them.

"People used to shoot hawks, owls and buzzards," said Ross Thompson of the Decatur Audubon Society. "They were all chicken hawks back then."

Among the more unusual sightings in the Decatur area so far this weekend have been a sharp-shinned hawk spotted by Lyle Clary and red-winged blackbirds, back about three or four weeks ahead of schedule, seen by Thompson and Warner.

"They got fooled by that warm weather this past week," Thompson said.

Worley said one of her customers also reported three red-breasted nuthatches, another species not normally seen this time of year, while several others have been seeing robins that never left.

Barton Rankin of Decatur said he likes bird watching because it's cheap entertainment. "I've learned what seed mixes attract which kinds of birds," he said.

Clary also said the hobby is also kind of like having a pet.

For Warner, however, it's the best stress reliever around.

"It's Mother Nature at her best," she said. "It's better than Tums."

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@;herald-review.com or 421-7978.