As the holiday season descends, there is still some business to attend to: namely, keeping tabs on our feathered friends.
Over the next several weeks, you might see mysterious flocks of people gathered in fields, woodlands and on roadsides. They’ll be ogling through binoculars, clutching coffee cups, and scribbling on clipboards. Well, it’s Christmas Bird Count season and all those people are, you’ve guessed it, counting birds.
Believe it or not, years ago as part of a traditional Christmastime competition, people shot as many birds as possible to demonstrate their marksmanship. At the turn of the 19th century…
Cut: I say why don’t we try to counting the blighters instead of shooting at them?
The idea caught on, and today people continue to endure harsh weather and frigid temperatures to keep tabs on our feathered friends. Who says birdwatchers aren’t hard-core?!
The Christmas Bird Count, or CBC as it is known, is an annual international event organized and compiled by the National Audubon Society. Roving teams of volunteers and home feeder watchers tally all the birds they see in their designated count area. New Hampshire’s first count took place in Keene in 1900. One person counted 18 total birds of three species. Last year in Keene, 19 participants counted hundreds of birds representing 54 species.
Although the serious goal is to gather important scientific data on local bird populations, the event can get pretty competitive. Bird-a-holics can’t help but try to log more species than the next birder.
