Fill the suet feeders and get the binoculars out—it’s time for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Counting day is Saturday, December 17.
A joyful tradition continues this month, with the 2011 Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The count will be held Saturday, December 17 in the Grand Marais “counting circle.”
People to watch bird feeders and to walk and drive in the circle are needed. The counting area is a 7.5-mile radius circle from a point 3 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, the 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 The Grade, Pike Lake Road, and Highway 61 west to Cascade Lodge, and all of the lakeshore between Lindskog Road and Cascade Lodge.
Participants can cover as much or as little as they like. Organizer Jeremy Ridlbauer says, “You can be a novice to a professional, since CBCs are open to birders of all skill levels.”
Participants will also be asked to record any species of birds they see in the count circle during “count week”—the three days before and three days after the count day of Saturday.
Grand Marais Audubon Christmas Bird Count Compiler Jeremy Ridlbauer said, “For count day, you’ll need a guide book, binoculars, a scope for lake birding, warm clothes, warm boots/Yak Traks, a log book to record your observations, and a keen and quick eye to count our winter rarities!
“If you are a feeder watcher, keep your 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,” said Ridlbauer.
If anyone would like more information on the Audubon Christmas Bird Count or would like to learn more about taking part, contact Ridlbauer at (218) 370-0733 or e-mail sundew@boreal.org.
After the count, Ridlbauer and other volunteers will contact participants for results. Participants are also invited to gather at 4:15 p.m. at The Garage on count day to compile results from anyone who can make it there.
Audubon Christmas Bird Count
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 105 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 canvas 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.
Today, over 55,000 volunteers from all 50 states, every Canadian province, parts of Central and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies, and Pacific Islands count and record every individual bird and bird species seen in a specified area. Each count group completes a census of the birds found during one 24-hour period between December 14 and January 5 in a designated circle 15 miles in diameter, about 177 square miles.
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