Great Backyard Bird Count . . . at the Field Station
Posted on Friday, February 1, 2008
February 15 to 18 is bound to be a busy weekend at the Field Station. The Great Backyard Bird Count will be underway Friday through Monday and on Saturday friends of the Field Station will gather at 9:30 for the annual Winter Chipping Party when Christmas trees will be turned into compostable wood chips. We need help. The college and community are invited to both events.
Most people like birds, except for the pesky English Sparrows and Starlings. At the Field Station we like them all . . . but some more than others! We like them because they represent a part of nature that deserves our attention. Bird watching telescopes are standard equipment in one or two rooms and binoculars and bird guides are always at the ready.
The 11th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, co-sponsored by Cornell University and the National Audubon Society, is a unique opportunity for amateur bird watchers and professional ornithologists -- and all people in between. All ages and experience levels are invited to take part wherever they are -- in backyards, in schoolyards, at local parks or wildlife refuges and at the Field Station. The hours for bird watching at the Field Station are 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. on Friday, 9:30 to 5:30 on Saturday, 2:00 to 5:30 on Sunday and 2:00 to 5:30 on Monday. But bird watching does not have to be done here to be counted!
Observers in all 50 states, provinces of Canada, Mexico, Central America and the northern countries of South America count the number of individuals and species they see during at least 15 minutes on one or more of the count days. They enter their tallies (by any computer connected to the Internet) on the Great Backyard Bird Count web site www.birdcount.org. For those counting birds at the Field Station there is a computer for sending in results. For those counting at home the counts may be logged from any home computer.
The web site provides helpful hints for identifying birds. Participants can compare results from their town or region with others, as checklists pour in from throughout the country. Birders can also view bird photos taken by participants during the count and send in their own digital images for the online photo gallery and contest. This is all great fun!
In 2007, Great Backyard Bird Count participants throughout the countries made history, breaking records for the number of birds reported, and the number of checklists. Participants sent in 81,203 checklists tallying 11,082,387 birds of 613 species.
Here, for the local 2007 GBBC, are the numbers reported:
New Wilmington
- Birds counted: 1,208
- Number of species: 44
New Castle
- Birds counted: 263
- Number of species: 22
New Bedford
- Birds counted: 0
- Number of species: 0
Volant
- Birds counted: 354
- Number of species: 23
Pulaski
- Birds counted: 381
- Number of species: 15
Grove City
- Birds counted: 298
- Number of species: 20
Greenville
- Birds counted: 247
- Number of species: 20
Mercer
- Birds counted: 1,484
- Number of species: 32
Youngstown
- Birds counted: 3,669
- Number of species: 45
"Volunteers are counting not only for fun but for the future," said Tom Bancroft, Chief Science Officer for Audubon. "It's fun to see how many different kinds of birds can be seen and counted right in your backyard or neighborhood park. Each tally helps us learn more about how our North American birds are doing, and what that says about the health and the future of our environment."
"The GBBC is a great way to engage friends, family, and children in observing nature in their own backyard, where they will discover that the outdoors is full of color, behavior, flight, sounds, and mystery," said Janis Dickinson, Director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Clarence Harms, Director
Field Station
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