One chickadee, two chickadees . . .

December

Sure, December means snow, school vacations, etc. But it also means its time to tally the birds who hang around for the winter, a.k.a. the Christmas bird count. The Bedford Audubon Society does theirs on Dec. 20. One in Putnam County takes place on Jan. 3. Bedford Audubon has more information here, including contacts, etc.

While it sounds like a serene way to spend the day and look at birds, a Christmas bird count is actually a long, often cold and somewhat hectic day scurrying from spot to spot. The goal is to count as many different species of birds as possible, so you end up going to as many different spots as possible: fields, forests, ponds, lakes, etc.

This is the count’s 109th year. It is fun and is all done for science, as the National Audubon Society points out:

“Each of the citizen scientists who brave snow, wind, or rain, to take part in the Christmas Bird Count make an enormous contribution to conservation. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations – and to help guide conservation action.”

(Black-capped chickadee and ring-necked duck photo both by TJN photographer Kathy Gardner.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 11:42 am by Mike Risinit.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print | Email

It is a condition of your use of the comment features associated with the blogs that you do not: Use the site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. You alone are responsible for the material you post or send. Refer to the Terms of Service.