Great Backyard Bird Count – coming soon

JOIN THE GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT

Count for Fun, Count for the Future

New York, NY and Ithaca, NY—Bird and nature fans throughout North America are invited to join tens of thousands of everyday bird watchers for the 12th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), February 13-16, 2009.

A joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, this free event is an opportunity for families, students, and people of all ages to discover the wonders of nature in backyards, schoolyards, and local parks, and, at the same time, make an important contribution to conservation. Participants count birds and report their sightings online at www.birdcount.org.

“The Great Backyard Bird Count benefits both birds and people. It’s a great example of citizen science: Anyone who can identify even a few species can contribute to the body of knowledge that is used to inform conservation efforts to protect birds and biodiversity,” said Audubon Education VP, Judy Braus. “Families, teachers, children and all those who take part in GBBC get a chance to improve their observation skills, enjoy nature, and have a great time counting for fun, counting for the future.”

Anyone can take part, from novice bird watchers to experts, by counting birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and reporting their sightings online at www.birdcount.org. Participants can also explore what birds others are finding in their backyards—whether in their own neighborhood or thousands of miles away. Additional online resources include tips to help identify birds, a photo gallery, and special materials for educators.

The data these “citizen scientists” collect helps researchers understand bird population trends, information that is critical for effective conservation. Their efforts enable everyone to see what would otherwise be impossible: a comprehensive picture of where birds are in late winter and how their numbers and distribution compare with previous years. In 2008, participants submitted more than 85,000 checklists.

“The GBBC has become a vital link in the arsenal of continent-wide bird-monitoring projects,” said Cornell Lab of Ornithology director, John Fitzpatrick. “With more than a decade of data now in hand, the GBBC has documented the fine-grained details of late-winter bird distributions better than any project in history, including some truly striking changes just over the past decade.”

Each year, in addition to entering their tallies, participants submit thousands of digital images for the GBBC photo contest. Many are featured in the popular online gallery. Participants in the 2009 count are also invited to upload their bird videos to YouTube; some will also be featured on the GBBC web site. Visit www.birdcount.org to learn more.

Businesses,  schools, nature clubs, Scout troops, and other community organizations interested in the GBBC can contact the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at (800) 843-2473 (outside the U.S., call (607) 254-2473), or Audubon at citizenscience@audubon.org or (202) 861-2242, Ext 3050.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is made possible, in part, by support from Wild Birds Unlimited.

Bye Bye Birdie

According to WatchList 2007, a survey just released by the National Aubdon Society and the American Bird Conservancy, one in four bird species in the United States are at risk.

We learn from the “Call to Action” on the Audubon web site that:

Audubon and the America Bird Conservancy have joined forces to rally conservationists around America’s most imperiled birds. WatchList 2007, a new analysis from these leading bird conservation organizations, uses the latest available research from the bird conservation community along with citizen science data from the Christmas Bird Count and the annual Breeding Bird Survey to identify 178 species in the continental U.S. and 39 in Hawaii that are in need of immediate conservation help. It is a call to action to save species fighting for survival amid a convergence of environmental challenges, including habitat loss, invasive species and global warming.

I took special note of Montana, where both my novel The Sun Singer and my upcoming novel are set. 40 birds are in peril there including the sage grouse, Calliope hummingbird and Baird’s sparrow.

We read so many warnings about species/rivers/parks/air/oceans at risk, that I wonder if we are becoming immune to them as emergencies. My work in preservation also brings magazines and newsletters with historic buildings and sites in peril: there are usually national and state lists of the places most at risk.

Sometimes I think it comes down to either ignorance or fatalism on the part of the public. They’re either never in a position to know of such Watch Lists or, when they do, they say that–even if the lists aren’t being propagated by one biased interest or another–what can John Doe and Susie Smith actually do to help Bairds’s sparrow in Montana or the Laysan Albratross in Hawai’i?

For a list of specific actions we can take, click here. But in general, Audubon says that “fortunately, there are many things you can do for the birds and for our future. Start at home. It may seem indirect, but by conserving energy, for example, you can save habitats from the worst impacts of global warming. Take action for sound environmental policy, urging lawmakers to pass laws to fight global warming, improve farming practices, and save wetlands. And as a volunteer, monitor birds and protect their habitats through citizen science efforts like Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count and the Important Bird Areas program.”

 That’s a good place to start in addition to awareness and compassion.