While the 125th Audubon Christmas Bird Count was held last month, the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre wants to give the younger set a chance to keep up the tradition.
On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the centre hosts its Christmas bird count for kids, a move that’s designed to help turn children into avid birders.
“The Christmas Bird Count is a citizen science project used to collect population trend and distribution data for birds,” the centre notes.
“We will be doing binocular drills, going over some birding basics and going on an introductory birding hike.”
For birding tips, a schedule of the days events, and to learn how to participate at the Wye Marsh or from home, click here.
The Audubon Christmas Bird Count, meanwhile, is the oldest and largest citizen science program in the world. It provides valuable information on population dynamics and trends for hundreds of North American bird species that are frequently encountered on count day.
Locally, the count has been organized in recent years by the Midland-Penetanguishene Field Naturalists' member David Schandlen. Held in mid-December, the count normally attracts close to 50 volunteers, who are then divided up to cover 17 areas.
These areas, which are consistent from year to year, are in a circle with a 15-mile radius. Wyebridge is the centre of the local count circle with the total area encompassing both the Wye Marsh and Tiny Marsh.
This year’s local count turned up a “real rarity,” according to the club, in the form of a Townsend's Solitaire, which is a member of the thrush family normally found in the western Rocky Mountains.
According to All About Birds, John Kirk Townsend collected the first Townsend’s Solitaire in 1835 along the lower Willamette River in Oregon. Three years later, John James Audubon honoured Townsend by naming the bird after him.
They are considered “short-distance migrants,” who breed at high altitude. In winter, they move down to lower altitudes, some of them to the foothills and prairies and some to the lower United States and Mexico.
These characteristics make the local discovery all the more exciting.
“But every year it seems, a couple individuals with perhaps a faulty inner compass, set off eastwards instead of south,” the local club notes in correspondence with members.
“We believe this is the first time we have recorded this species on our Christmas Bird Count. Congratulations to the sharp-eyed counting team in that area, Chris Evans, Ian Cook and Allison Gilbert.”
