Audubon Bird Counting Teams — Out in the Field, or From Your Home Window

Bluebirds in the San Juans. Photo courtesy of Kathleen Ballard.

By Barbara Jensen

It is that time of year for the Christmas Bird Count. Make your calendar for Saturday, December 18^th. We got the snow out of the way early this year and we’ve ordered  calm, clear weather for that day. In any case, it will be a fun day.

Our island coordinators are:

Orcas – Kim Middleton – 317-5606

Lopez – Liz Scranton – 468-4383

Shaw – Mother Hildegard – 468-2321

San Juan – Barb Jensen – 378-3068

If you would like to do another island than your own (it is really fun to go somewhere new) call that island coordinator.

If you are doing a yard count I would ask you still contact your island coordinator to let them know that area is covered.

If you have never done this and want to it is easy. You can either join a group via your island coordinator, take a route like your neighborhood or property or do a feeder count.

• You need to note the time you start and finish. How many miles you walk, drive or use your boat and how many hour to the ¼ hour for each.
• You need to note the weather, beginning and ending temp.
• You need to count each bird of each species that your see or hear. If you do a feeder count do an estimate of how many birds of one kind like a junco and use that as the average number that is coming to your feeder. A window of an hour is good but keep and eye during the day for other thinks like hawks, quail, woodpeckers and so on. Easy!!!

Remember: We also take sighting three days on either end of the count. A list of species that are only occasionally seen but we would like to have on the count will be circulated soon. The last few years we’ve see about 110 species.

So get friends and family together for a fun day watching birds.

Barbara Jensen is President of the San Juan Islands Audubon Society. She may be reached at skylark@rockisland.com