Project FeederWatch on Saturday, October 25, 2008

Do you count your birds too? If so, you might like to join me in Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project FeederWatch which starts in November. Participation is easy, and it's a great family project!

by Michele Dupraw

I like to count birds. I sit down at my kitchen table with my notebook, pen, and binoculars and gaze out the window and write down who is in the backyard a few times a month. It’s nice to have a journal to document when I have new arrivals or when migrants come and go. I have been doing this for about four years and it’s interesting to check to see what is the same or different from year to year. And of course, I have a “yard list” that includes all the species I have seen in my yard.

Do you count your birds too? If so, you might like to join me in Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch. Project FeederWatch has been taking place for 13 years and they now have participants all over the country and Canada. It’s easy to join and participate. A small fee of $15 is required and you will receive a Research Kit with all the details from Cornell Lab. The fee covers materials, staff support, web design, data analysis, and a year-end report.

Counting birds for Project FeederWatch is easy and it could be a fun project for the whole family. Basically you pick a day or two a week to watch your count site. You don’t have to watch the count site all day, but you do have to be committed to a scheduled amount of time to record the species you see in your count site. Project FeederWatch runs for 21 weeks beginning in November. The data collected is invaluable in identifying wintering bird populations across the country. The amount of, or lack of, birds counted help scientists determine wintering ranges and they can then look for trends that might be affecting bird populations. I hope you decide to become a citizen scientist and join me and over 15,000 others in Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch.