Once again it is the Audubon Christmas Bird Count season! This is the 126th year of the Christmas Bird Count and it is the 75th year since the first Carleton Place CBC. Birders and nature enthusiasts from surrounding areas can join citizen scientists throughout the world and participate in the Audubon Society’s longest-running wintertime tradition, the Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC).
Thousands of individuals participate in the count day set between December 14 and January 5 each year. The CP CBC, this year, takes place on Saturday, December 27th. Every CBC volunteer is an important contributor, helping to shape the overall direction of bird conservation. Birds Canada and its partner, the National Audubon Society in the United States rely on data from the CBC database to monitor bird populations. Iain Wilkes is the coordinator and compiler for the CP CBC.
Volunteers are essential to the success of the CBC. You don’t need to be an expert but it important to be a birder who is familiar with the local bird species, have binoculars and be willing to spend either a day in the field counting birds or recording birds at your feeders. There are 10 sections within the CP CBC circle and teams are assigned to each section. Once the participants and assignments are done, the coordinator distributes more detailed instructions to all. At the end of the count day (27th|) a lead person for each section provides the results for their section to the CP CBC coordinator. The coordinator will arrange to distribute the results to all participants. After the count is complete the results are posted on the Audubon and the MVFN sites.
This year there is some sad news to pass on. Don Brown, an active field observer since the 1950s passed away recently. Don was one of the earliest participants in the Carleton Place CBC and he and his contributions will be missed. His son Andrew and Don could always be depended on to do the east section of the circle called A2. I remember his smile and wink as he would often tease me about the number of cardinals reported and could he count the “Pileated Woodpecker that never moves on the hydro pole on Cemetery Side Road”.
For more information or to register for the CP CBC as either a field or feeder observer contact the coordinator at iain.wilkes@hotmail.com.
Best of the Season to All
