The 16th annual Great Backyard Bird Count takes place the weekend of Friday, Feb. 15, through Monday, Feb. 18.
This activity engages citizen scientist volunteers to count birds in specific locations all across the United States and Canada on the third weekend of February each year. In 2012, this effort recorded 104,151 separate checklists, including 2,046 from Tennessee. Shelby County contributed more than 10 percent of the total, 256. And Memphis recorded 93 species, tops in the state.
The 2013 Great Backyard Bird Count, a joint project of the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, will incorporate two major changes. First, it will go global. Checklists can be submitted from anywhere in the world. Second, Great Backyard Bird Count data will be merged with eBird, the National Audubon Society and Cornell University's worldwide database of bird sightings. This will require participants to create an eBird account. To do so, go to BirdCount.org.
The bird count is fun and free. Just count all of the birds that you see and hear in one place (your yard, a park, schoolyard, your office) for at least 15 minutes any or every day Feb. 15-18. The information that you and thousands of others provide will help scientists to learn more about what is happening in our environment. To protect, we first must know.
The entire month of February is Backyard Bird Month at the Memphis Botanic Garden. The garden is sponsoring a contest of bird photographs taken in its Nature Garden during the month. On Feb. 16, Dick Preston and other members of the Memphis
Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithology Society will host a bird identification workshop at the Botanic Garden as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend.
There will be a free "Lunch and Learn" brown bag lunch followed by a guided bird walk in the nature garden. Afterward, data collected during the bird walk will be entered into the bird count database.
The Botanic Garden will host "Celebrate Urban Birds Day" from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 23. There will be crafts and games, and members of the local Ornithology Society will lead a bird walk. For more information, contact Charity Novick at 901-636-4119, or go to memphisbotanicgarden.com.
The 113th annual Christmas Bird Count was held at selected locations all around the globe between Dec. 15, 2012, and Jan. 5, 2013. The Memphis count on Dec. 17 had 34 observers who located 92 species. The Wapanocca (Ark.)/Shelby Forest (Tenn.) count on Dec. 29 had 24 observers locating 91 species, and the count at Arkabutla Lake on Jan. 5 enlisted 20 observers who found 110 species, a record for that count.
The greatest surprise of any local Christmas Bird Count came on the Wapanocca/Shelby Forest count when an ash-throated flycatcher was discovered in Shelby Forest State Park. Ash-throated flycatcher is a Western species rarely seen east of the Great Plains and an apparent first record for Shelby County.
Van Harris is a former president of the Memphis Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithology Society, a member of the Mississippi Ornithology Society and the Mississippi chapter of the National Audubon Society. Address questions to email@example.com.