Red-winged Blackbird. Photo courtesy of Matt Wetrich

 

The National Audubon Society is looking forward to hosting its Christmas Bird Count event once again.

The Audubon Christmas Bird Count has been taking place for 123 years this year, and is the longest running community science survey. The count is set to take place on December 14th, with nearly 80,000 volunteers and 2,600 locations nationwide, including in Guthrie County.

According to Interpretive Naturalist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Anne Riordan, over many years of participation the Jamaica Circle has counted 13,400 individual birds, including a snowy owl and golden eagle. She says the Christmas Bird Count is important, because the information gathered from the survey helps conservationists to keep track of bird populations, and track how those populations have changed over the past hundred years.

For those in Guthrie County interested in participating, everyone will meet at the Springbrook State Park House/Office at 7am on Thursday, December 14th to organize parties. Parties will leave from there in search of birds. Everyone will meet at Mickey’s in Yale at 11:30am for lunch to compare notes. Those that are wanting to continue will decide what areas to cover. At 5pm people are invited to return to Springbrook for chili and compilation of results. People can call in or email their results if they’d like as well.

Birders that are interested in joining will need to arrange with the count compiler in advance to participate, and that contact information can be found below. If you’re not from Guthrie County but would still like to participate in the survey, you can look for a Christmas Bird Count Circle that may be close to you at the website below.

 

Anne Riordan
anne.riordan@dnr.iowa.gov
641-295-6028

https://audubon.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=ac275eeb01434cedb1c5dcd0fd3fc7b4