By Lynn Stafford

Each year a wild bird census takes place for four days over Valentine’s Day weekend throughout North America and Hawaii. This is the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). Nearly 100,000 daily counts were submitted by bird watchers of all ages and abilities last year. Birders reported the numbers of each species of birds at their homes or in other favored birding locations. Take as little as fifteen minutes on just one day, or go berserk and spend most of all four days staring at the feeders as this writer did last year.

Why count Birds? Many mysteries of nature require experts using specialized equipment, techniques and knowledge to explore. Examples include the study of populations of endangered fish, migration patterns of elephant seals and reactions of polar bears to changing ice floe patterns. But there are other questions that can only be answered by the compilation and analysis of large amounts of fairly simple data. Some of this data can be acquired by amateurs. The key element is ‘large amount of data.’ There is no funding available for the thousands of GBBC counts done each year. These counts are done by volunteers, then analyzed by experts representing Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society.

The GBBC helps to answer many scientific questions. How will the timing of bird migration compare with past years? Are any birds undergoing worrisome declines in numbers? How are bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions?

In 2009, there were seventeen daily GBBC counts taken in the Frazier Mountain region. To explore being a part of this event on February 12–15, go to www.birdsource.org/gbbc. Please drop a note (Subject: BIRDS) to Editor@MountainEnteprise.com so we can put you on our list of GBBC participants this year. Watch for more stories on this in The Mountain Enterprise.

This is part of the January 29, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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