Escape the demands of the pre-Christmas season by spending a few hours along local trails on the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). In 1900, an American ornithologist asked people across North America to head out on Christmas Day to count birds (instead of shooting them, as was the tradition) and submit the results as the first “Christmas Bird Census.” The CBC is now conducted in the two weeks around Christmas in more than 2000 localities across North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. The observations form a huge database that reflects the distribution and numbers of winter birds over the past 111 years.
BMN has been participating in the TriCities sector of the Pitt Meadows CBC for the past 19 years, and we’ll be out again this year, rain or shine, by foot, car and possibly by boat. You will be assigned to a team that is sent to one of 14 Areas (e.g., Colony Farm, Como Lake, Inlet Park, Lafarge Lake, along the Coquitlam River); even if you’re not a whiz at bird identification, you will still be a valuable member of the team as spotters and a recorders are needed too. You can also participate by watching your feeders that day if your yard is located within the count circle.
If you haven’t already signed up for CBC-2012, please contact us at burkemtnnats at gmail dot com.