It’s that time of year again, bird listing seems to gain popularity in winter. It’s not that there are more birds around, I think it’s because we have more time on our hands and what could be a better way to get through a long winter than adding birds to some of your various lists.
New Brunswick naturalists keep a winter list, the period for this one runs from the first day of December until the last day of February. This list has contributers from all over the province it doesn’t record numbers of birds, but rather if the species was represented that winter. I particularly like it if I see a bird that I don’t expect in winter, I check the winter list and often it has been noted on several other year’s lists.
Take our robin, inevitably I will get phone calls or hear reports on the radio that a robin was sighted in the winter. People always find it odd and wonder if it means an easy winter or early spring, but if you go to the winter list you’ll see it was checked off every year since 96/97 when the list came on line.(If I knew where to look, I’m confident it would have been recorded every year).
You’ll see some species that were spotted occasionally, even the odd swallow, warbler and flycatcher; you’ll be wondering what these guys would find to eat in a New Brunswick December.
So far this “winter” there were 131 species of birds recorded in New Brunswick, the average is 161. You’ll see this and be thinking, wow, this is going to be an awesome year for birding, only 8 days in (11 by the time you read this) and we’re already at 80% of the yearly average. Hopefully that is the case, but the first couple weeks of the count are the most productive, there are still some stragglers and since birders know this there are many eyes out there trying to find them. The last 20% that will bring the list up to the average will be much harder to tally that the first 80.
You can check it out at nbwinter.ghnature.com and if you’ve seen any species not already recorded drop and email to Gilles, it would be much appreciated.
The oldest and probably the most well known census is the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), this is the 111th year for the count that runs from December 14 to January 5. Volunteers go into the field on one day during this period and count as many individual birds as possible, it’s more than just ticking off the species, every bird counts, (even the starlings, who often win the prize for most represented).
Everyone’s welcome, no matter your skill level, you’ll be placed in a group with at least one experienced birder who also knows all the best birding areas in your circle. You may not be able to identify every bird you see, but more eyes help find birds and the group can put a name to them together. It’s a great way to learn more and make a contribution to conservation. If you don’t want to go into the field you can sign up as a feeder watcher, at times throughout the day you can check who’s at the feeders, you don’t have to stare out the window all day, you simply record the time spent watching, so four stints of 15 minutes each at peak times of feeder activity could tally up some interesting numbers. The results get compiled and are reported as X number of birds per hour of observation.
If you have a rarish bird around your feeders coming up to the count day, you could try to let the local compiler know. If you can’t watch your feeders that day, someone could include your yard on their route and add it to the year. If you have a bird that is seen in the count period but not on count day, it gets noted as being present during the count period.
All the New Brunswick counts and compilers are on David Christie’s website (it’s a long url, I put the direct link on twitter.com/thebirdgarden).
As with the winter list, the counts held early in the period will usually have higher numbers of birds than those held at the end, birds still hanging around and somewhat warmer temperatures are likely the reason.
Project Feeder Watch is under way, it starts in November and runs 21 weeks, taking you into April. You count birds at your feeders for 2 consecutive days in each week. If you miss a week or don’t have as much time each day, it’s OK, you record how much time you’ve spent watching, it’s all important information. You are asked to choose your count days in advance and not alter them because you have a particularly busy day at the feeders, if everyone was to do that it would seem like there were an abnormally large number of birds around in that winter.
The Great Backyard Bird Count for 2011 is from February 18-21, you can count anywhere you wish for as long as you want, you tally the highest number of birds noted at one time, (you don’t want to count that flock of starlings every time it circles overhead). When you’re done you enter your checklist on line, anyone can follow the progress as numbers get entered.
This would make a great activity for a class, group, seniors home or anyone else with an interest. Everything you need to know is on birdsource.org, including a power point presentation, tally sheets (enter you postal code and get a regional checklist you can print) and slide show, along with the history of GBBC, kids page, FAQ’s and previous years results.
I’ll certainly be exploring this site on the long cold winter nights ahead.
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