The Audubon Society’s 111th annual Christmas Bird Count which will be the 34th for Port Aransas, Texas CBC along the gulf coast. The way it works is that local teams will count all the birds seen of heard in a 15 mile radius of an area that includes, Port Aransas, Aransas Pass, Ingleside and parts of the Gulf of Mexico, Redfish Bay and Aransas Bay. The CBC begins just before sunrise and ends at sunset. People who choose not to go on an watch with a group may call the counts coordinator and report birds they may see in their backyard bird feeder or telephone wires. These usually include certain birds such as hummingbirds,barn owls,Turkeys, thrashers, woodpeckers and bob white quail.
The Christmas Bird Count is the longest running volunteer-based bird census spanning three human generations. It has more that 55,000 volunteers from all 50 states, far exceeding the 27 participants in the first CBC in 1900. Today, in addition to the 50 U.S. states, every Canadian province, parts of
Central America and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies and Pacific islands count and record every bird they see during the CBC. All this valuable scientific data to the National Audubon Society. Written by Jack Kidd.