TERRE HAUTE — The Wabash Valley Audubon Society invites area bird watchers to participate in the 13th annual great Backyard Bird Count Feb. 12 through 15. Participants in this free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers counting birds in their own backyards (or other areas inhabited by birds) across the country. Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from novice bird watchers to experts.
Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and easily report their sightings online. Last year counters in the WVAS five-county area (Clay, Parke, Vigo, Sullivan, and Vermillion) submitted only 18 GBBC lists from six cities. Terre Haute led the way with 10 lists; followed by Newport, Dugger and Rosedale with two lists each; and finally Clinton and West Terre Haute with one each. Bloomington led the state with 224 lists followed by Indianapolis with 151.
Newport led Terre Haute 42 to 38 for the number of species seen in this area. Newport’s lists included 42 bald eagles, 12 trumpeter swans and two golden eagles. Four Terre Haute counters only documented 45 crows amongst the 574 individual birds seen.
Anyone who has been to Terre Haute lately knows that number is low. Dugger tallied the most individual birds with 162,036, with Newport coming in a distant second at 2,978 birds. For more data and information on how to enter your count data, go to www.birdcount.org.
The data collected helps researchers track trends in bird numbers and migration. This is your chance to make a valuable contribution to an important scientific project. Consider making it a family or school project to increase children’s appreciation of the outdoors. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society jointly lead this project, with generous support from Wild Birds Unlimited. Show your support and get counting to let everyone know that there are more than just crows in Terre Haute and the surrounding area.
In order to assist with this project, the Wabash Valley Audubon Society, in cooperation with Scott Pet Products, will be giving away free bird feeders and bird seed at the Turkey Run State Park Inn on Saturday during the Eagles in Flight Weekend. There is a fee to participate in the event. A brochure about this special weekend can be downloaded from www.in.gov/dnr/park
lake/files/sp-EagleWeekend.pdf.
