Redbud Audubon to participate in annual Christmas Bird Count on December 19, 2015
This year, the annual Clear Lake Christmas Bird Count, held by the Redbud Audubon Society, will be on Saturday, Dec. 19. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a traditional project of Audubon societies around the country and takes place between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5.
Each December birders gather to record every indi- vidual bird and species encountered during the day. Each count group has a designated circle of 15 miles in diameter and tries to cover as much ground as pos- sible within a certain period of time.
The data collected by each count group are then sent to the National Audubon Headquarters in New York and is made available online.
Redbud Audubon invites all birders and nature enthusiasts to join in the upcoming Christmas Bird Count. Birders of all skill levels are encouraged to participate. This is Audubon’s longest running win- tertime tradition and is the 39th year the Count has taken place in Lake County. There will be two main groups that participants might wish to join – one will meet at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park and the other will meet at the Visitor’s Center Parking lot at the Clear Lake State Park. Both groups will meet at 8 a.m. and continue through to early or mid-afternoon.
After the count, participants are invited to a pizza dinner at 5:30 p.m. at Kelseyville Pizza on State Street in Kelseyville to join in the count compilation where the tally of the day’s sightings is compiled.
Previous to the bird count, at the Thursday Dec. 17, meeting at Glebe Hall (next to St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 4085 Main Street, Kelseyville) Brad Barnwell will present an extensive slide show and discussion of distinguishing features of birds that are often seen during the annual count. The meeting is open to the public and visitors are encouraged to attend. It starts at 7 p.m.
If you are interested in participating in the bird count, call (707) 263-8030, leave a message with your phone number, and someone will return your call.
The Christmas Bird Count began more than a century ago when 27 conservationists in 25 localities, led by scientist and writer Frank Chapman, changed the course of ornithological history.
On Christmas Day in 1900, the small group posed an alternative to the “side hunt,” a Christmas day activity in which teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds and small mammals. Instead, Chapman proposed to identify, count, and record all the birds they saw, founding what is now considered to be the world’s most significant citizen-based conservation effort – and century-old institution.
Scientists rely on the remarkable trend data of Audubon’s CBC to better understand how birds and the environment are faring throughout North America – and what needs to be done to protect them. Data from Audubon’s signature Citizen Science program are at the heart of numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies.
With all of the issues, including climate change and habitat loss, facing both local bird species and birds worldwide, there is no time like the present to start getting involved in local bird conservation and educating yourself about the numerous bird species we have right here in Lake County; the annual Christmas Bird Count is a fun way of doing this.
