From December 14th through January 5th tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in the Christmas Bird Count, which has become a family tradition among generations. Families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists go out on an annual mission - often before dawn. For over one hundred years, the desire to both make a difference and to experience the beauty of nature has driven dedicated people to leave the comfort of a warm house during the Holiday season.
Each of the community scientists who annually braves snow, wind, or rain, to take part in the Christmas Bird Count makes 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.
From feeder-watchers and field observers to count compilers and regional editors, everyone who takes part in the Christmas Bird Count does it for love of birds and the excitement of friendly competition -- and with the knowledge that their efforts are making a difference for science and bird conservation.
The longest running Community Science survey in the world, Christmas Bird Count provides critical data on population trends. Data from the over 2,300 circles are entered after the count and become available to query under the Data & Research link at www. audubon.org
The Christmas Bird Count has relied on the dedication and commitment of volunteer community scientists and will take place on Sunday Dec 18th in the Champlain Islands and surrounding areas. Teams will be out from dawn to dusk counting the birds that have stayed to winter over.
We are looking for folks to conduct feeder watches at home on Sunday Dec 18th within the designated circle. This includes all of North Hero, Isle La Motte and parts of Grand Isle, Alburgh, Swanton, St Albans, Georgia and Point Au Roche, NY.
You can check here to see if your home falls within the 15 mile count circle. Just type in your address or Zoom into Vermont.
https://audubon.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=ac275eeb01434cedb1c5dcd0fd3fc7b4
If you would like to bird in the field we need a few more folks too! Join in on the fun, birding all day.
Please contact Terry at tgmarron@comcast.net for more info.
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