Dec 14 2008
Blade on Audubon Christmas Bird Count
The Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count is one of the longest and most wide-ranging studies of animal populations in the world. For over a hundred years, birders have counted birds near the Christmas holidays. The Toledo Blade has a Steve Pollick column that argues in favor of the count’s continued relevance in modern times:
When it comes to treasures in the natural scheme of things, birds count — and that’s why people count birds this time of year.
Today marks the opening of the 109th Audubon Christmas Bird Count season, a time when thousands of bird enthusiasts will fan out across much of North America and Central America and beyond to index the numbers and distribution of bird species in more than 2,000 counts. The count ends Jan. 5.
Each local count occurs within an established 15-mile-diameter circle. Information gathered helps scientists learn more about how birds are faring throughout North America, adding to more than a century of data collected by previous generations of volunteers.
With habitat and wild areas disappearing at an alarming rate and global warming affecting some ranges, the National Audubon Society says, scientists will rely on CBC data to help identify birds in most urgent need of conservation action.
Full story:
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081214/COLUMNIST22/812140291/-1/NEWS11