Southern Marin Christmas Bird Count
Saturday, December 26, 2009 | Sign Up Online »
Great rare birds are out there – help us find them, and along the way, identify and count all the more common ones too!
Join Marin County birders (and some others) for a day of fun and birding on our annual AUDUBON CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT. We will cover the whole southern part of the county, from Terra Linda to Bolinas Lagoon to the Golden Gate Bridge. This year the date is December 26, 2009 and we have already ordered beautiful weather but the count occurs rain or shine.
At the compilation dinner (see below), after the day is over, hear about the species the other teams have seen. Please join us! We need lots of good birders in the field, but if you would like to stay at home that day and count birds that appear at your feeders, we can put your numbers into our count as well -- just let us know you are doing that. Sign up by filling out this form. If you have problems or questions, email polskatata@yahoo.com or contact Harrison Karr at 415-713-2224 and leave a message with your contact information. Happy birding!
History Of CBC'S
For those of you not familiar with the Christmas Bird Count, "more than 50,000 observers participate each year in this all-day census of early-winter bird populations. The results of their efforts are compiled into the longest running database in ornithology. Simply put, the Christmas Bird Count, or "CBC", is citizen science in action. Up until the turn of the century, people commonly engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas "Side Hunt". They would choose sides and go afield with their guns. Whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered quarry won. Conservation was in its beginning stages at the turn of the century, and many observers were becoming concerned about the indiscriminate slaughter of wildlife and the resulting declines in bird populations. On Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the then budding Audubon Society, called for an end to the slaughter. He suggested that, rather than shooting birds, people count them instead. So began the Christmas Bird Count.
Southern Marin CBC
The Southern Marin count circle is 15 miles in diameter and ranges from Terra Linda to the Golden gate Bridge, and from Bolinas to San Pablo Bay. Volunteers are assigned to 23 separate areas within this count circle and identify and record every individual bird within their area of this count circle. The compiler combines each area's total species and individual birds, and sends this on to the National Audubon Society. To learn more about Christmas Bird Counts and to see specific data from all count circles, go to www.birdsource.org (click on BirdSource project, choose Christmas Bird Count; on the CBC web page choose Current Year or Historical Results, we are count circle CAMC).