Will there be more or fewer birds this year? Will some rare species show up?
Those thoughts will be on birders’ minds Sunday as they kick off the Audubon Society’s 115th annual Christmas Bird Count, which will continue through Jan. 5. This season, the annual survey will take place in some 2,300 locales in all 50 states, every Canadian province and parts of Central and South America.
In each locale, teams of birders will fan out in a 15-mile diameter circle to tally all the birds they see and hear in a single day. Their results will provide critical data on bird population trends.
In Georgia, 29 Christmas Bird Counts are scheduled across the state, from remote barrier islands to secluded mountain coves. The surveys begin on Sunday with counts in Marietta, the Chattahoochee National Forest Songbird Management Area in Murray County and on St. Catherine‘s Island on Georgia‘s coast. On Monday, counts will shift to Roswell and the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in middle Georgia.
For Georgia's complete CBC schedule, visit the website: www.gos.org/cbc/115schedule.html
One of the last counts of the season will be the newly-revived Intown Atlanta bird count on Jan. 3. It was given new life two years ago by Atlanta Audubon Society President Joy Carter and others after it had been missing since the 1970s, when it was moved to Cobb County. Birders decided at the time that too much of Atlanta had been paved over, and it had become difficult to find enough green space and birds in the city to make a Christmas count worthwhile.
But last year’s intown CBC results — 84 species — showed that Atlanta, although buried under thousands of acres of asphalt and concrete, still has ample green space to provide habitats for a variety of birds.
“We’re hoping, of course, for more species this year, and perhaps a surprise or two,” Carter said.
IN THE SKY: One of the year’s showiest meteor showers, the Geminid, is visible all weekend and will reach a peak Saturday, Dec. 13 of about 50 meteors per hour. Look to the east from about midnight until dawn, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer.
The moon will be last quarter on Sunday night. Venus is low in the west just after dark. Mars is low in the southwest at sunset and sets about an hour later. Jupiter rises out of the east a few hours after dark. Saturn is very low in the east just before dawn and will appear near the moon next Saturday morning.
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