We are settling into the season with our annual Ney Winter Bird Count. This will be our 28th year counting birds as part of the larger National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The CBC is the longest running citizen science project in the world, with this winter’s count being the 125th CBC. Our Winter Bird Count will be held on Saturday December 14th this year. We will be meeting at the Education Building for a brunch and presentation to celebrate. People are welcome to stay and count at our feeders, go out together in groups, or hike through the park with Ney Center staff to look for birds. It is going to be an exciting day!
We are still coming up with our menu, so make sure that you specify any dietary restrictions that you have during the registration process. You are welcome to register online or in person until December 10th. Please register ahead of the event so that we can ensure that we have enough food for everyone. We will, of course, have coffee. 🙂
We will kick the event off with a presentation by staff members on the history of the CBC as well as our count here at Ney before handing the floor over to Art and Barb Straub. They will be giving us an update as to what they have observed already before moving on to talk about birds. They will be focusing on Shrikes, Bluejays, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Snow Buntings.
The CBC started as an alternative to a tradition of “side-hunts” which occurred around Christmas in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. What had started as a way to supplement a family’s winter food supply eventually became a competitive sporting day. Hunters would gather up in groups and form teams. The goal was to go out in these teams and see how many different animals the hunters could shoot in one day. This was, understandably, devastating to wildlife populations. Concerned by the reduction of bird populations, naturalist Frank Chapman convinced other hunters to participate in a bird count instead of a side hunt, and the CBC was born. With only 27 counters, 18,500 birds from 90 different species were counted. This kicked off a new tradition that has spread worldwide.
Our Winter Bird Count started 28 years ago thanks to Larry Granger, Barb & Art Straub, Ollie Heitkamp, and other passionate birders. With the help of many dedicated naturalists and volunteers, we managed to establish a solid tradition here at Ney. Over the years we have seen our winter bird populations change with many bird species that used to migrate now overwintering locally. From Blue Herons to American Robins, we have seen a variety of different species that have started to delay their migration or skip it altogether.
Overall, this continues to be a wonderful opportunity to get involved in birding, and we are always happy to welcome new birders to the event!