During the next few weeks, if you see small knots of people with binoculars in your neighborhood, peering into trees and bushes or even your front yard, and perhaps occasionally yelling “sapsucker“ or “redhead,” fear not.
They are birders, conducting the Audubon Society’s 117th annual Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs). The counts began this week and will continue through Jan. 4 — at least 25 counts altogether around Georgia. Counts this weekend are slated for Marietta, Dalton, Augusta, Macon, Athens, St. Catherines Island and Cumberland Island.
The count in which I regularly participate, the Intown Atlanta CBC, is scheduled for Jan. 2, dawn to dusk, warm or freezing, rain or shine. To find birds, we will divide into 14 groups and fan out in a 15-mile diameter circle centered near Briarcliff Road and Ponce de Leon Avenue.
We will scour woods and fields, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, neighborhood parks, city sidewalks and, yes, even front yards for birds.
Nikki Belmonte, executive director of the Atlanta Audubon Society, warned us that we should not be surprised if the police check on us. “People understandably want to know what a bunch of people with binoculars and cameras are doing in their neighborhood,” she said.
Last year’s Intown count was a great success, yielding 22,850 birds representing 88 species, including a few rarities (for metro Atlanta) — green heron, peregrine falcon, marsh wren, rufous hummingbird, Lincoln’s sparrow.
While CBCs are fun and social occasions, more important is that they generate valuable data on bird populations to help scientists gauge the health and vitality of our planet.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: Winter officially begins on Wednesday (Dec. 21) at 5:44 a.m. — the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year.
The Ursid meteor shower is visible this weekend and through next week, reaching a peak of about 15 meteors per hour on Thursday night (Dec. 22). Look to the east from about midnight until dawn.
The moon will be last quarter on Tuesday. Mercury and Venus are low in the west and Mars low in the southwest around sunset. Jupiter rises out of the east around midnight and will appear near the moon on Wednesday night.
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