Several WRN Kids families joined the first ever Christmas Bird Count for Kids in our area! The wonderful folks at rare Charitable Research Reserve in Cambridge organized this event. Thank-you Jenna, Emily and Garrit! We hope you do make it an annual experience!
Inside, we learned some birdwatching tips (you have to try to be quiet!), which birds we might see, and how to use binoculars. We met David, Jim, Fraser and Jason, our bird experts and headed out in four teams. Our leaders helped us find birds, figure out what kind they were, count how many we saw and keep track while we walked. It was really cold but all four teams did a great job learning how to CBC! When we came back inside the ECO Centre, we checked our lists, counted our species and had time to chat, play and warm up with some hot chocolate!
Our final count from all 4 teams — 26 species and 364 individual birds! — will be sent to Bird Studies Canada. We’re doing “citizen science,” when ordinary people help scientists by collecting information. Lots of CBC’s and CBC4K’s are done in lots of places and the information helps scientists know which birds are around each year and if there are more or less of each kind.
Thanks to everybody who made this fun event happen and bravo to the brave birdwatchers of WRN Kids!
Marg Paré
For more photos of the event see David Gascoigne’s personal blog at: Travels With Birds.