Home Education~Ministry Moments~Hearth and Home

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Christmas Bird Count (or how we were Citizen Scientists for the day!)

     My family was so excited to participate in the Audubon 113th Annual Christmas Bird Count.  (4:30 came pretty early, though, for this sleep-in-til-7:30 homeschool mama!)  We bundled up, and met up with a sweet (and very bird savvy) couple from nearby.  We met for the first time in the dark, then started to listen for owls. We didn't have any luck calling in owls, but saw and heard dozens of species before 10:00 a.m. (when our family had to head back home). 
     It's exciting to know our observations will be sent to Audobon to help other scientists gain knowledge of bird populations, and guide conservation.  The Christmas Bird Count is the longest running science citizen survey in the world!  We already plan to participate again next year. 

A beautiful sunrise!

We did quite a bit of driving--lots of different habitats means more varieties of birds!

Lot of birds to see on the water! 

THE LIST.  After observing in one area, we'd meet back together and tally our findings.  We saw so many different birds!

Checking out the markings of a gull.  (Budding Ornithologist added 4 new birds to his life list!)



1 comment:

Melinda Speece said...

4 birds to the life list???? WOW!!