December 24, 2021
Christmas Bird Count!
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This Musing celebrates our feathered friends and an outdoor, holiday tradition known as the Christmas Bird Count. |
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Christmas Bird Count History
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In the late 1800's many people participated in a holiday tradition known as the side hunt. Participants would gather on Christmas day, arm themselves and choose teams. They would then take to the countryside shooting birds or small animals and at the end of the hunt the side who brought in the most wildlife would win.
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Needless to say to many this was an unsettling and concerning tradition, especially among leaders of the burgeoning wildlife conservation movement. In 1900, an influential and well known member of this new school of thought, the U.S. ornithologist, John Chapman, came up with an idea for a new, less destructive tradition, the Christmas Day Bird Count (CBC). Twenty-five bird counts were held that first year, with participants counting some ninety species.
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Listen to more about the history of the the Side hunt and Christmas Bird Count from The Masked Biologist on WXPR.
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Image of Ornithologist Frank Chapman. Date circa 1903 , courtesy of United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c02412
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Christmas Bird Count Facts
The Christmas Bird Count is one of the largest “citizen science” efforts regularly held anywhere in the world.
According to the National Audubon Society, "each year tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas brave snow, wind, or rain, and take part in the effort. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this long-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations, and to help guide conservation action." -
The northernmost count in the world is conducted by Clare Kines and many times the Common Raven is the only species he tallies. Kines’s count circle is centered around his hometown of Arctic Bay, a village of 800 people in an area that has been occupied by Inuit people on and off for at least 4,500 years.
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The Common Raven is also the only species Kines has tallied on every one of his bird counts and he estimates that about 300 ravens live year-round in the Arctic Bay area.
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| Local Birding Events -
The Audubon's 122nd Christmas Bird Count takes place between Tuesday, December 14, 2021 and Wednesday, January 5, 2022, and there is still time to participate in two Connecticut counts, the Bristol CBC and the Guilford- Long Island Sound Count CBC, both being held on Sunday, January 2, 2022.
- The Hartford Audubon Society is encouraging its members to join together for a friendly competition to try and find the most bird species in Hartford County during the first month of 2022. They are calling it Big January.
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For beginning birders, who would like to participate and learn more about birding, the Hartford Audubon Society hosts morning walks designed for beginners at Hartford Audubon’s oldest sanctuary, Station 43, off of Historic Main Street in the South Windsor Meadows. Held four times a year, the second of these walks will be held Saturday, January 8, 2022, at 9am. Station 43 is an excellent birding area year ‘round with plenty of seasonal birds to inspire and educate those new to birding.
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Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested. |
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