Sunday, December 14, 2014 will be the 115th Christmas Bird Count of the National Audubon Society and the 111th Rochester CBC.
Following our usual seesaw pattern, last year (2013) we dropped down to 87 species. It was one of the more difficult counts in many years from a weather standpoint.
Let’s try to stay on pattern and jump back up, maybe to a new high over 100! The aims of the count are both the gathering of data on birds in the circle and a chance for birders to get together socially. Even if you’ve never been on a count before, please consider joining us this year. Inexperienced observers will be teamed up with the more experienced. If you cannot get out to bird in the field, consider watching your feeder for some time during the day, then phoning in your count of birds seen at your feeder; all data is useful. Look over the list below and call an area leader to volunteer in an area of interest to you. Participants will receive a summary of the Count in the fall of next year from National Audubon. A brief summary will also appear in the Little Gull soon after the count
period.
The count date is Sunday, December 14. The count circle is 15 miles in diameter and is centered at the intersection of Dewey Avenue and Stone Road in the Town of Greece. The count week is December 11 to 17. Birds seen during the week, but not on the count day may be called in to the area leaders for inclusion in the year’s species total. Different groups may start or end at different times of day on the 14th, so be sure to ask your area leader. In the evening of the count day, December 14, we will gather about 6:00 PM for dinner followed by the tally of the species seen this year with comparisons with the past.
This year the dinner will again be at the Charbroil restaurant at the corner of Island Cottage Road and Edgemere Drive. We will order off the regular menu. The tally will start about 7:30 PM. We will be finished by 9:00 PM. Even if not interested in dinner, please join us for the tally. There is no need for reservations, but we would like some idea of head count by Tuesday, December 9 – please call or email the compiler at the phone number below or at rspahn@prodigy.net .
Rochester CBC areas and leaders are as follows:
Braddock Bay to Long Pond Road Bob and Susan Spahn 671-5690
Long Pond Road to Dewey Avenue Greg Lawrence cell 730-2553
Dewey Avenue to Charlotte Harbor Kimberly Sucy 503-2534 or ksucy@eznet.net
Summerville to Culver Road Dominic Sherony 223-7353
Culver Road to Baker Road (Webster) Tom & Nancy Poeth 872-5344
Highland Park, Genesee Valley Park, Mt. Hope Cemetery Shirley Shaw 385-3907
Seneca Park Tom and Pat Smith 385-7714
Maplewood Park, Holy Sepulcher and Riverside Kim Hartquist 461-4855
cemeteries, and Turning Point Park
Area west of Rochester-Monroe County Airport Jack Hartwig (contact thru Bob Spahn)
Robert Spahn
Compiler 585-671-5690
