Christmas count coming

Birdwatchers are flocking together in the next few weeks in about 2,000 localities across North America for the 108th Audubon Christmas Bird Count, and Inland Northwest birders are in the thick of the action.

New birders are invited to join avid birdwatchers on at least a dozen counts that are being organized within 100 miles of Spokane.

Each volunteer group counts for one day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5 in a designated circle 15 miles in diameter.

The count began on Christmas 1900 in 25 eastern localities where birding groups publicized the pleasure of identifying, counting and recording all the birds they saw.

Apart from its main attraction as a social and competitive event, the databases generated by online reporting have boosted the Christmas count’s value in generating a “snapshot” and monitoring the long-term status of resident and migratory birds across the Western Hemisphere, National Audubon officers say.

The data reported by volunteers are combined with more scientific survey methods to help ornithologists study myriad issues, such as the magnitude of West Nile virus and climate change.

A record for participation was set last season when nearly 58,000 volunteers tallied 70 million birds by covering more than 2,000 counting areas.

Idahoans have been participating since 1914, when the state’s first Christmas Bird Count was organized in Moscow, said Shirley Sturts of Audubon’s Coeur d’Alene chapter.

New birders are always welcome to join the counts, said Alan McCoy, the local chapter coordinator of groups that will be heading out on Dec. 29 for the Spokane count.

Local count coordinators enter their survey data into Audubon’s Web site, where computer systems almost instantly compile results for comparison to past years.