Written by Andy McCormick

This year’s Christmas Bird Count will be held on Saturday, December 14. This will be the 120th year of the CBC, which is sponsored by the National Audubon Society. It will be the 36th year for Eastside Audubon’s count. Count Day is always a special day when chapter members work together as a unit with teams of 3-6 people covering 14 sections of a 15-mile diameter circle in our service area. All the birds seen or heard that day will be tallied and entered into the huge National Audubon database for the combined U.S. CBC.

You can join the count by registering to go birding with a team and, if you live within the Count Circle, you can count birds at your feeder. All teams and feeder watchers send their bird totals to the Count Compiler, who is now me, Andy McCormick. Click here to learn more about the count and how to register for a team. Teams have a limited number of members so the group can move quickly to cover their assigned areas. Beginning, intermediate, and advanced birders are welcome. We will try to balance the teams as people register.

A quick way to see if you live within the Count Circle is to download the “Count Circle” app onto your cell phone. Then tap Lookup/Washington/East Lake Washington (This is the chapter’s former name). The circle will open, and you can zoom in on it to see if you live within the circle.

The counting on Count Day usually ends around 2:30 p.m. but the day ends with the CBC dinner at 4:30 p.m. The dinner is an opportunity to share good company and a good meal, and review the count of the birds we saw during the day. I’m looking forward to the count this year and I hope a lot of you will participate. We may have need for one or two more section leaders. If anyone is interested in a lead role, please contact me at amccormick@eastsideaudubon.org.