I don't go on a bird count. I sit in my living room and watch my bird feeder. When I drive I watch for birds. In the summer I sometimes go for a stroll with my binoculars.
Actually, there are some birds that I see more commonly in the winter than the summer, for example red polls and grosbeaks. Ravens are only seen in the winter as they travel north for the summer.
Apparently numbers of many species are dwindling. In the summer I do not see the variety of songbirds that I can recall from years ago. I have a bird feeder blog:
http://kenbird7.blogspot.com
I think that the bird called a "sterling" in the article is more likely a starling!
There is no mention of the common house sparrow in the list. The rock dove by the way is the common pigeon found haunting old grain elevators etc.
Bird counts help track populations
Anne Kyle
Leader-Post
Thursday, December 27, 2007
CREDIT: Roy Antal, Leader-Post
Dale Hjertaas and Dan Beveridge of Nature Saskatchewan check a wooded area north of the Murray Golf Club for birds.
Armed with binoculars, a bird guidebook, and thermoses of tea and coffee, Regina birders spent Wednesday recording numbers and species of birds found in the Regina area.
Dale Hjertaas with Nature Saskatchewan said the Christmas bird count is an annual event organized by Nature Regina and Nature Saskatchewan every Dec. 26. But it is also a continent-wide event organized in Canada by Bird Studies Canada and in the United States by the National Audubon Society.
"There will be about 100 bird counts happening across the province and several thousand more across the continent,'' he said in an interview while wondering the countryside looking for birds and mammals.
"There are two purposes for the bird count. One is fun -- it's a way of encouraging people to get out and enjoy the great outdoors rather than sitting inside and eating more Christmas dinner,'' Hjertaas said.
"The count also has some significant scientific value because it is done on such a large scale that the data collected on the bird populations is a very good set of data for looking at the long-term changes in the bird populations on a provincial or continental basis.''
For example, Hjertaas said, he has been monitoring the slow increase in the raven population throughout the province using the bird count data from the 1950s to the present.
"When you look at that you can plot on maps the gradual spread of ravens from the boreal forest southward,'' he said.
When the bison were here there were ravens all over the province, he said. But as the bison were killed off, and the wolf population poisoned, the ravens' food supply dwindled and as a result, the ravens disappeared from the plains and were only found in the boreal forests.
"We thought of ravens as forest birds, but beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s the birds began expanding southward. We have seen ravens here in our Regina bird count (Wednesday) where as 10 years ago we would not have seen a raven in area. They are becoming more common.''
The primary objective of the Christmas bird count is to monitor the status and distribution of bird populations across the Western Hemisphere.
This information is vital for conservation. A decrease in bird populations can indicate habitat fragmentation or destruction or signal an immediate environmental threat, such as groundwater contamination.
"Birding is fun. Most of us who do it are interested in nature and interested in birds, but there aren't a lot of birds in winter so it forces us to get out there. You can easily go out for an hour's walk and see almost nothing, so it's a bit of a challenge,'' Hjertaas said.
"We spend quite a bit more time looking than actually seeing birds during a Christmas bird count.''
Hjertaas and his group started the morning counting geese -- 1,700 -- and mallard ducks -- 17 -- swimming on a pond of open water on the Federated Co-operative Refinery grounds.
"During the day our group spotted 18 different species of birds -- rock dove, Canada geese, mallards, ravens, magpie, partridge, sharptailed grouse, a great horned owl, the common crow, black-capped chickadee, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, snowbunting, common redpoll, red-breasted nuthatch, sterling, and wax-wings,'' he said.
Beside observing and recording the bird life, Hjertaas said participants also record the mammals they see during their outing and any wildlife tracks.
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007
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