Birders wanted

Saturday is annual Christmas Bird Count

Posted

BROOKINGS – Get out your binoculars, walking shoes, warm clothing and drinking water. It’s time for Brookings area participants to take to the field for their piece of action in the 118th Christmas Bird Count.

Nelda Holden will be spearheading this year’s Brookings area count from about 7:45 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23. At about 5:30 p.m. following the count, a celebratory potluck will be held at the Larson Nature Center in the Dakota Nature Park. 

Holden has been participating in the annual count since 1957.

To date, Holden has a team of about a dozen volunteers who will count and record each individual bird and bird species they encounter in four quadrants in a 15-mile diameter circle with its center-point about 5 miles south and 2 miles east of Volga.

Those who like to view birds from the comfort of their homes are also welcome to participate. “We are also looking for feeder watchers in the Brookings area,” Holden said.

For additional information or to participate, call Holden at 692-8278 or KC Jensen at 690-6104.

Brookings area volunteer counters are a piece of the much bigger picture: The Audubon Christmas Bird Count will mobilize more than 72,000 volunteer counters at more than 2,500 locations across the Western Hemisphere.

The results they gather will be compiled into a database in ornithology that represents more than a century of unbroken trends of early-winter bird populations across the Americas.