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Upcoming Event Schedule (Click here to see previous events)
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Christmas Bird Counts in Colfax County And, if any of you are willing to participate in the Raton Count on Christmas Day, please let Dave Cleary know so this can be officially scheduled. Dave's contact info is djcleary@bacavalley.com or 505-375-2971. The Angel Fire / Eagle Nest Christmas Bird Count will be Friday,
December 14. The earliest possible date for AF-EN has to do with the
considerable loss of birds due to cold weather as Winter sets in. For
anybody who is interested, Dave will be doing Count Week scouting on Dec. 11
& 12. Those wanting to stay overnight at the St. James, let the hotel know that you are a Christmas Bird Count participant to receive a discount of 30% for as long as anyone wants to stay on either side of the actual count date. The Raton Christmas Bird Count was held on Christmas Day last year with only Les and Dave chasing feathers. A Christmas Bird Count on Christmas Day might be worth repeating this year. It is helpful if participants contact the CBC complier for the Count(s) they will participate in prior to the Count date. Feeder Watchers living in designated Count areas may participate on the Count day for their area, but they need to register with the complier for the Count. There is a $5 voluntary fee for each participant. The fee goes to the Audubon Society, which will then mail each participant a copy of the Count statistics. A copy of this report for last year's count is available for review at the Angel Fire Chamber of Commerce and the Shuter Library in Angel Fire. Participants not paying the fee are not listed as official "counters" and don't receive the Count Summary from Audubon. Counts are open to birders of all skill levels. This year over 2,000 individual counts are scheduled to take place throughout the western hemisphere as part of Audubon's longest-running wintertime tradition - the CBC. Although referred to as Christmas Bird Counts, the Counts take place between December 14 and January 5. CBC's began Christmas day 1900 when 27 conservationists in 25 localities, lead by scientist Frank Chapman, changed the course of ornithological history. This small group posed an alternative to the "side hunt", a Christmas Day activity in which teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds and small mammals. Instead, Chapman proposed to identify, count, and record all the birds they saw. Chapman's group probably never imagined the powerful, citizen-based important tool they instigated - 2,060 counts were completed last year reporting 61,579,102 birds. Apart from its attraction as a social and competitive event, CBC's reveal valuable scientific data that monitors the status of resident and migratory birds across the Western Hemisphere. The data, 100% volunteer generated, have become a crucial part of natural history monitoring. Count results from 1900 to the present are available through Audubon's website www.audubon.org/bird/cbc. Included in those results is the last report of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the CBC database - two birds that were seen in the Singer Tract in Louisiana during the 38th CBC in 1937. Other sightings were reported earlier in the 1930s. Additional information about the CBC is available on Audubon's website at www.audubon.org/bird/cbc |
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Webmaster: Lynn Eubank
Last update: 11/29/2007