These Common Redpolls look quite easy to count—we’ll see if they are so serene during the 2009 Audubon Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, December 19.
Have you ever wondered just how many black-capped chickadees have been flitting around your feeder? Have you noticed an uncommon number of common ravens on your morning hike? If you would like to help record the number of birds sharing our yards and forests, the 2009 Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) has a wonderful opportunity for you!
Both feeder watchers and walking/driving birders are needed for the 2009 Christmas Bird Count (CBC), which will be held Saturday, December 19.
The Grand Marais CBC is a 7.5-mile radius circle from a point three miles south of the middle of Devil Track Lake. The count circle covers Highway 61 to Lindskog Road and north, some of County Road 60, Gunflint Trail to the landfill road, Pine Mountain Road to the backside of Elbow Lake, Devil Track Road to Bally Creek Road, Ball Club Road to TheGrade, Pike Lake Road, and Highway 61 west to Cascade Lodge, and all of the lakeshore between Lindskog Road and Cascade Lodge.
Volunteers can cover as much or as little as they like. Everyone from novice to professional is encouraged to help, since CBCs are open to birders of all skill levels.
Volunteers are also needed for “count week,” which happens for the three days prior and three days after the count day of Saturday.
For count day, volunteers need a guidebook, binoculars, a scope for lake birding, warm clothes, warm boots/ Yak Traks, a logbook to record observations, and a keen and quick eye to count winter rarities.
If you are a feeder watcher, keep you feeders full up and through count day to encourage birds to be there on that day; have various foods available in feeders and on the ground to entice as many species as possible.
While Audubon’s National CBC effort began Christmas Day 1900, the first known Minnesota CBCs were conducted on Christmas Day 1905 in Minneapolis and Red Wing. During those last 103 years, the Christmas Bird Count has been conducted uninterrupted in the state and has grown to include almost 70 census circles and involved more than 28,000 participants. Each and every year more than 1,000 participants canvass the state to conduct the survey.
These participants have logged nearly 77,000 total hours, traveling approximately 548,000 miles. The Minnesota CBC has tallied over 8.5 million birds of 201 species.
Contact Jeremy Ridlbauer at sundew@boreal.org or call (218) 370-0733 to let organizers know what area you can cover or what feeder or area you’ll be watching.
Volunteers should also contact the coordinators on the count day to report results. Participants are encouraged to meet at 4:15 p.m. at Neptune’s Cybercafé/Superior Coastal Sports (next to Cook County Whole Foods Co-op) on count day to compile results.
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