{"id":6996,"date":"2012-12-15T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2012-12-15T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6996"},"modified":"2012-12-14T17:30:23","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T22:30:23","slug":"christmas-bird-counting-season-begins-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/12\/15\/christmas-bird-counting-season-begins-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Bird Counting season begins this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A rare leucistic black-capped Chickadee at a Bloomingdale NY feeder during a previous Christmas Bird Count. Photo: Larry Master<\/p><\/div>\n

Christmas doesn’t only mean four French hens, two turtle doves – or a roast turkey on the table.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 1900 counting birds around Christmas time has become a treasured tradition in the birding community, one that welcomes new participants as well.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Citizen’s Don Butler summarizes the action from this side of the border as\u00a0Ottawa birders gear up for \u2018singalong Messiah of the birding world\u2019<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0That article states a dozen bird counts are planned in Eastern Ontario during the Christmas count period from Dec. 14 and Jan. 5 – including this Sunday’s one-day counting event in the Ottawa region.<\/p>\n

More information on that can be found on the website for the\u00a0Ottawa Field Naturalists Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Todd Moe has shared different aspects<\/a> of Christmas bird counts across many winters.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0National\u00a0Audubon\u00a0Society’s website has more on Christmas bird counting activities including a FAQ page<\/a> and a way to search for a count near you<\/a>. Or go local and head to the website for the Northern New York Audubon Christmas Bird Count page<\/a>. They get started Saturday Dec 14th with a count in\u00a0Ferrisburgh (VT\/NY).<\/p>\n

By the way, if you run into “CBC” on the birding sites, in this case it means “Christmas Bird Count”, not Canada’s national broadcaster!<\/p>\n

Though donations are still welcome, the nominal fee of $5 charged in past years has been dropped.<\/p>\n

The cross-border count\u00a0spanning Cornwall and Massena, N.Y., is scheduled for Dec. 22.<\/p>\n

You can bundle up to count in the great outdoors. Or sit tight and take note of bird-feeder visitors from the warm side of your own window. Either way helps, according to the Audubon Society:<\/p>\n

The data collected by observers over the past century allow researchers, conservation biologists, and interested individuals to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even if you don’t participate in any formal sense, it’s a nice exercise in mindful observation to take note of wildlife in the world around us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas doesn’t only mean four French hens, two turtle doves – or a roast turkey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[7151,880,7150,884,5670],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7003,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6996\/revisions\/7003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}