I’ve participated four times in the Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) at North Park. I’m a very amateur birder but I grew up listening to my mom’s bird song recordings and picking up a few things along the way. She told me that her dream career was to become an ornithologist but she must not have felt that it was an attainable goal for herself. Instead she traveled to places near and far checking off birds on her life list.
My children and I participate in the CBC in her memory because it falls around her birthday.
Here are some tidbits about the results of this community science event from Leah Fulton who is the assistant naturalist at Latodami Nature Center in North Park.
“We had an amazing 63 total birders, 60 of which were volunteers. The 2024 count saw nine daytime groups and two owl groups counting birds in the park, spotting 1,496 birds from 49 species total. Some highlights include the Ross’s Goose, spotted by several groups around North Park Lake, the Red-headed Woodpecker, ever popular with the “paparazzi”, and the Rusty Blackbird, a rare bird for the region’s count history. Participants covered 20 daytime miles of walkable territory and visited 26 shelters and parking lots during the owl count. The volunteers accrued a whopping 227 volunteer hours, which is the equivalent of nearly nine and a half straight days!”
For those local to the ecovillage or planning a visit the Spring Bird Survey will take place on Saturday, May 17th from 8-11am.
– Kristi Karsh, Founding member and future resident of RCE