‘Tis the season for counting birds.
The 112th annual Christmas Bird Count takes place in over 2,000 locations across North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Each local count, conducted on any one day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5, is typically organized by a birding club or naturalist organization.
At Pike Lake Provincial Park near Saskatoon, counters break into groups in the morning, meet up at noon in a church basement for lunch and to compare notes, then go back out till sunset. Ravens, white-breasted nuthatches and woodpeckers are among the sights during the post-Christmas event.
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At Tagish, south of Whitehorse, Yukon, some of the species that can be expected on Boxing Day include chickadees, pine grosbeaks, magpies and buffleheads.
In Ontario’s Thousand Islands, the count will begin at 7 a.m. on Dec. 28 and end with a “pot luck tally party” at Mallorytown Landing on the St. Lawrence River after 4 p.m.
Other Canadian locations include Elk Island National Park in Alberta, Yoho National Park in B.C., Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Que., and Arviat, Nunavut.
Last year almost 12,000 participants – novices and experts alike – in Canada found 3.3 million birds in hundreds of locations, says Bird Studies Canada, a conservation group.
The data collected are used in “a myriad of analyses regarding both bird conservation and climate change, said Dick Cannings, the group’s Christmas Bird Count co-ordinator.
For details on how to participate, go to http://bit.ly/t1iwj9.
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