Christmas Begins this Sunday for Area Birders

For thousands of birders world-wide, Christmas begins this Sunday December fourteenth. That is the opening day of The National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count period which runs each year from that date through January fifth. During those three weeks, birders will take to the field for a full day of counting birds and collecting bird population and distribution data. It is the longest running citizen science program; this year marks the one-hundred fifteenth anniversary of the Count.

Participants fan out within a fifteen mile diameter circle from a predetermined center to census all the species that they encounter. Over the years, the data has proven valuable for researchers studying changes in populations and population shifts. 

In North Carolina, forty-one counts have been scheduled this season, with eighteen already set in South Carolina. By the time the period is over, over fifty counts will have been conducted in North Carolina and close to thirty in South Carolina.

This isn’t a casual stroll through the woods and fields looking at birds. This is an intensive effort where the mission is to FIND birds. That means getting off trail, walking through thickets, wading through marshes and swamps, getting in the field before sun up and staying after sun down. The Count goes on rain or shine, cold or warm, wind or calm. I have done all-day counts in the freezing rain, deep snow, and single digit wind chills. This is serious business.

   

I will participate in five Christmas Counts this year; Southern Lake Norman on the fourteenth, Gastonia on the twentieth, Charlotte on the twenty-seventh, Wilmington on January third, and Southport / Bald Head Island on January fourth. There are some other area counts of interest as well; York/Rock Hill on December twentieth, Catawba Valley on December thirtieth, and Pee Dee Refuge on January third. 

What’s the payoff? I get to spend all day birding with other enthusiastic birders, I will see lots of good birds, there’s the potential to find a real local or state rarity, I know the data collected will go into a database that is constantly being tapped, and there is a free tally up supper at the end of each day.

For more information on the 115^th Christmas Bird Count go to http://www.carolinabirdclub.org/christmas/  and

http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count