Friday, December 7, 2001
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Friday, December 7, 2001 |
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Local birders cast eyes to sky in annual count By SALLIE
SATTERTHWAITE
Just as surely as Santa Claus is heading our way through the frigid stratusphere, flocks of birders will soon be fanning out through East Coweta and western Fayette to count the songbirds and water fowl that winter here. Just as surely as families gather at Grandma's for Christmas dinner, shivering bird-census takers will come in out of the cold to sip hot cider and add up their lists of sightings. The annual Christmas Bird Count is approaching. More than 50,000 volunteers from all 50 states, every Canadian province, parts of Central and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies, and pacific islands will count and record every individual bird and bird species they see during one 24-hour day in the weeks immediately before and after Christmas. They'll confine themselves to about 1,800 count circles, each 15 miles across, covering about 177 square miles with binoculars sweeping the trees and fields and pencils making notations as they go. This collaborative effort of the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology is in its 102nd year. It began on Christmas Day, 1900, when a band of 27 conservationists in 25 localities initiated an alternative to the holiday practice of bird-shooting competitions of the time. Why not compete in counting the greatest number of birds instead of hunting them? The CBC is today considered one of the most significant citizen-based conservation efforts, and an invaluable tool for monitoring the status of resident and migratory birds across the Western Hemisphere. Last year, Bird Studies Canada became involved in the count, and new records were set. More than 54 million individual birds were counted, for a total of 2,485 species, 689 in North America alone. There are two designated count locations in the Atlatna area, Marietta and Peachtree City. The Peachtree City circle is centered approximately in Sharpsburg. Brock Hutchins of Fayetteville coordinates the local Christmas census, and is already enlisting volunteers. There are three ways to participate, he said. He needs: Experienced birders to cover as much ground as possible by car and on foot. Property owners who will allow the counters to walk on their land. Feeder watchers who get to stay in a warm house all day counting the birds that frequent their own backyards. "Last year," Hutchins said, "we had 20 field counters, with 82 species and 7,002 individual birds counted." To take part, phone Hutchins at 770-461-5042, or write him at brockhutchins@msn.com. For information visit www.atlantaaudubon.org. Count results will be posted almost as fast as they come in on the National Audubon Society's Web site, www.audubon.org. Another useful Web site is www.birdsource.org.
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