EVANSTON — Bird enthusiasts are seeking volunteers to help with this year’s Evanston Christmas Bird Count, scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 15. Those interested are asked to meet at the Hornet’s Nest, 8 miles north of Evanston on Hwy. 89. Horses, snowmobiles, cross-country skis and ATVs are welcome.

Tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in an adventure that has become a family tradition among generations. Families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists go out on an annual mission — often before dawn. For more than 100 years, the desire to both make a difference and to experience the beauty of nature has driven dedicated people to leave the comfort of a warm house during the Holiday season.

This year’s count marks the 37th year of the Evanston Christmas Bird Count and the 119th anniversary of the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) held throughout the Americas. The CBC began over a century ago when 27 hunter/conservationists, led by ornithologist Frank Chapman, changed the course of ornithological history. On Christmas Day 1900, the small group of conservationists initiated an alternative activity to the “side hunt,” a holiday practice typical of the time period. This “side hunt” was an activity in which teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds and small mammals. Instead of this hunt, the group, made up mostly of hunters, would put down their firearms for a day and identify, count, and record the birds that they saw. This started the tradition of what now is considered to be the most significant citizen-based conservation effort — and a more than century-old institution.

The data collected by observers over the past century allow researchers, conservation biologists, and other interested individuals to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America. When combined with other surveys such as the Breeding Bird Survey, it provides a picture of how the continent’s bird populations have changed over the past hundred years. Growing in popularity since its inception, the count serves an important scientific function as well. Birds are one of the first groups of animals to be affected by environmental threats like climate change, pollution and habitat destruction.

The CBC data provides indispensable information, not only on long-term health of bird populations, but also the status of the environment that birds share with all living things.

From feeder-watchers and field observers to count compilers and regional editors, everyone who takes part in the Christmas Bird Count does it for love of birds and the excitement of friendly competition, and with the knowledge that their efforts provide valuable data for science and bird conservation. 

During last year’s count, more than 56 million birds were tallied by over 73,000 volunteers.

This year over 2,560 individual counts are scheduled to take place throughout the Americas and beyond from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5, 2019. 

Count event is a 24-hour census

Each count group completes a census of the birds found during one 24-hour period between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5, in a designated circle 15 miles in diameter — about 177 square miles. Participants sit, walk, fly airplanes, boat, cross-country ski, snowmobile, ride horses and drive all manner of vehicles to tally birds on count day.

Nineteen counts were held in Wyoming last year — Albany County, Bates Hole, Buffalo, Casper, Cheyenne, Cody, Crowheart, Dubois, Evanston, Green River, Guernsey-Fort Laramie, Jackson Hole, Kane, Lander, Pinedale, Sheridan, Story-Bighorn and Sundance. A hundred and four different species were sighted in Wyoming last year. Utah enjoyed 26 counts, with 191 different species documented. A total of 3,420 birds, 47 species, were tallied during the Evanston CBC last year.

For more information, contact Tim Gorman at (307) 679-0656 or (307) 789-3833.