Volunteers Needed For Christmas Bird Count

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Christmas Bird Counts will occur between December 14th, 2013 and January 5th, 2014 across North America. A project of the Audubon Society, volunteers collect information that is used in scientific studies on wildlife and the environment. Locally, there are bird counts planned for Holiday Beach, Cedar Creek, Point Pelee, Lakeshore and the Detroit River.

The New Year’s Day Detroit River Bird Count takes place on January 1st, 2014 at 8am at the Ojibway Nature Centre where volunteers fan out into west Windsor, a good habitat for birds.

“We start early in the morning, sometimes before dawn and then meet around lunch to compare our sightings,” explains Paul Pratt, Naturalist at Ojibway Nature Centre.

During a good day, volunteers may see between 50-100 species of birds and thousands of individual birds. “One year, we saw about 20,000 Canvasbacks on the Detroit River,” explains Paul Pratt, “and that was only one species.”

Starting last year, the bird counts have gone digital with the results being posted online. As a result, there is no fee for volunteers to participate. Approximately 12,000 volunteers are expected to participate in over 418 counts in Canada.

For more information and dates for other local Christmas Bird Counts, visit www.ojibway.ca.