Birds Count

No degree required, science and research are not just for PhD’s. Many research institutions recognize the importance of citizen science: collecting and analyzing data relating to the natural world by the general public, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists.

In case you missed the Great American Backyard Bird Count earlier this year, there’s another opportunity coming up this Saturday, May 13.  Called Global Big Day, the Cornell Lab for Ornithology is helping to promote the event, and collect the data from around the world.  In a single day, watchers worldwide across political boundaries and language barriers will report their observations. In 2016, 17,000 people from 153 countries took part. Capturing a global snapshot for day would be impossible for a network of researchers. But, collecting observations by interested people around the world provides a perspective that would be impossible to achieve over decades of research efforts by a single organization.

Here on Berta Ridge, chances are that there will be a few changes in the list from February’s Great Backyard Bird Count, as the wintering sparrows and thrushes will be headed north to their summer homes. Lately, we see more quail under our seed feeder, and crossing the road in the morning. And, the hummingbird traffic is picking up at our feeders. Perhaps I will do my count early in the morning: maybe I’ll spot the owl I often hear before sunrise, somewhere up in the pines.