The Great Backyard
Bird Count
February 15-18, 2002
The 5th Great Backyard Bird Count is only a month away.
Fill up your feeders, dust of your binoculars, and find
your Sibley Guide! We're busy updating our website http://www.birdsource.org
and putting the final touches on our State/Province bird
checklists. We hope that you will make plans to join us
for the count, February 15-18, 2002.
Over the last 5 years, volunteers have submitted hundreds
of thousands of checklists from across the continent. With
multiple years of data under our belt, a number of interesting
stories are taking shape — like the range expansion
of the Eurasian Collared-Dove (see our animated North American
map for this species at http://www.birdsource.com/gbbc/results.htm)
and the multi-year cycles of winter irruptions by winter
finches (see our story at http://www.birdsource.com/gbbc/irruptions.html).
The real power of the GBBC, however, is in engaging the
tens of thousands of volunteers and documenting their local
stories. Like the participant in Grand Junction Colorado
with all three species of bluebird in his yard (something
relatively few people in the world can match), there are
countless interesting tales to follow. As we move forward,
the information entered by our loyal core of volunteers
will only get more valuable.
The count can also be a wonderful way to introduce these
volunteers to their local chapter. To that end, the Science
Department has teamed up with the Membership Department
and designed and printed GBBC brochures and posters to help
promote the count. We've also organized a special "GBBC
Chapter Challenge" contest to encourage Audubon Chapters
to experiment with using the GBBC to help recruit new members.
As an added incentive, the three chapters that recruit the
most new members during our "GBBC Chapter Challenge"
will win one of three prize packages. For more information
on how to get your chapter involved, please email Kristen
Totaro at Audubon.
We're very excited to be entering our 5th year of the GBBC.
Please join us and add to the stories that make up the GBBC.
We still have plenty of GBBC brochures and posters for you
to put them up around your community, apartment building,
grocery store, gym....! Let us know if you need any by contacting
Kristen Totaro.
Cheers,
Matthew McKown
mmckown@audubon.org
