By Christine Bruce

According to the site birdscanada.org, “... the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is North America’s longest-running Citizen Science project. People in more than 2000 locations throughout the Western Hemisphere participate in the CBC each year.”

Information is collected by thousands of volunteers, which then forms one of the world's largest sets of wildlife survey data. The results are used by conservation biologists, environmental planners, and naturalists to assess the population trends and distribution of birds.

The count brings out community members to collect statistics on as many different species—and individuals of those species—as possible over the course of a single day. Listen in the file below for interviews with Rosamund Pojar and Frank McDonald.

Rosamund is a local naturalist and our local bird count compiler; Frank is an avid birder and his legacy is the establishment and maintenance of the Barrett Hat trail network.