Hope you can join us on Dec 15th for the Annual Christmas Bird Count.

Please contact Gene [email protected] or 905 889 – 7888if your interested in participating for the morning, afternoon or the full day.  Also anyone that can’t come out can assist us by counting at your feeder.

The Richmond Hill Naturalists Christmas Bird Count takes place on December 15th this year. The Richmond Hill Naturalists are just one group among thousands participating in the Christmas Bird Count throughout the western hemisphere. The count began in 1900 as an alternative to the then traditional practice of the Christmas Side Hunt, in which sportsmen and women signed on to teams which then went out and vied to see which team could kill the most birds and other animals in the allotted time. An officer of the fledgling Audubon Society, ornithologist Frank Chapman started the new and less lethal tradition of the Bird Census. 27 birdwatchers in 25 cities (including Toronto) participated in that first count; last year more than 50,000 counters in 19 countries from Antarctica to Alaska took part.

In Richmond Hill, each year groups of birdwatchers of all levels of expertise cruise their assigned sections; each group taking note of every bird and every species that they see in their area. The club’s results in turn are submitted to Bird Studies Canada, which works with the Audubon Society in the US and elsewhere to analyze the data. If you wish to be a counter or to volunteer your back yard please leave a message with Gene Denzel at 9058897888 or email [email protected]

The Richmond Hill Naturalists are also looking for people with bird feeders to open up their back yards for the Bird Counters. Bird Counters would visit volunteering households ONCE between 8am and 4:30pm on December 15. They will check the yard to count all the birds and bird species that may be seen there for just a few minutes – maybe longer if your yard is particularly exciting at that particular moment! You may also choose to count the birds and bird species in your yard yourself on December 15th and report your results.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 at 8:52 am and is filed under Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.