Press Release
Another Christmas Bird Count season is just around the corner!
Between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5, tens of thousands of bird and winter enthusiasts will rally together to count millions of birds across the continent as part of the 119th year of this long-running wildlife survey.
On Dec. 22, participants in Fort Frances will take part in this fun winter tradition, with many rising before dawn and counting birds until sunset!
Each year, Bird Studies Canada and the National Audubon Society help co-ordinate and support the efforts of more than 2,500 counts throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Data collected during the Fort Frances count include details on the number of birds of each species see or heard within a local 24-km diameter circle.
Surveying this circle year after year contributes valuable long-term information on how winter birds are faring, both in your locale and across the country.
The Fort Frances count is now in its 24th year and we would welcome some new help. We count in two ways: either by counting feeder birds from your window with a warm mug in hand or by spending the day outside with a field team checking forests, fields, waters, barns, and neighbourhoods.
In recent years, we’ve covered our circle with just four teams, which involves quite a bit of driving to get to the best spots during daylight.
With someone at the wheel with his or her eyes on the road, the rest of the team is scanning for birds on the moves, managing the list, and checking the bird books.
The more eyes, the better. Likewise, when the team is combing an area on foot, the more ears, the better.
If you would like to participate in the field count, we can partner you with an experienced birder if you’d prefer or give you your own slice of our circle, a map, and a species list.
If you plan to count your own feeder birds and call them in, please also contact us as you might unknowingly already be on a field team’s radar and we can leave your feeder for you to record.
Several of our seasoned bird-watchers already have been “pre-birding,” looking for owls, hawks, late robins, and sparrows, along with well-stocked feeders and fruit trees.
And if you think you have something interesting, like a rare species or a bird that should have gone south already, please give us a call!
“Every Christmas Bird Count participant is an important part of this valuable project for birds,” said Liz Purves, Bird Studies Canada’s Christmas Bird Count co-ordinator.
“Whether you participate for bird conservation, for some friendly birding competition, or for an excuse to get outside in the winter, our efforts are meaningful for birds,” she added.
The skills and dedication of thousands of volunteer “citizen scientists” harnessed during the Christmas Bird Count achieve incredible results that professional scientists and wildlife biologists could never accomplish alone.
During last year’s count in Canada, 2.8 million birds of 287 species were counted by more than 14,000 participants in 463 counts across the country.
Counts were conducted from across diverse habitat types in each of Canada’s provinces and territories–from coast to coast to coast!
For further information, contact local count compiler Ilka Milne at 274-2988 or via e-mail at boghaunter@yahoo.ca
