Birdwatching With Children: Project FeederWatch
Although I hate to see summer fading away, I love the coming of autumn. It is the time of year when the air smells of pears and apples (at least in my yard it does), leaves turn golden and red, and sweaters come out from their summer hiding places. For those of us who have spent the warm summer months on outdoor activities, it is time to start moving back inside. It is also time to start thinking about making sure my bird feeders are ready for the 2001-2002 "Project FeederWatch" season.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology has several "Citizen Science" projects wherein they enlist the use of many volunteer observers who receive research kits with instructions, reference guides and data forms which are returned to the Lab for analysis and publication. Results of the projects appear in popular and scientific publications. In addition to Project FeederWatch, which is probably the most well known, there is also Classroom FeederWatch, The House Finch Disease Survey, Project Pigeon Watch, Project Tanager, Birds in Forested Landscape and the Cornell Nest Box Network. I'm going to focus on Project FeederWatch, because it is the easiest project for the most people to become involved in, and it is a particularly exciting project for home schooled children.
Here's how it works. Project FeederWatch is administered jointly by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, Bird Studies Canada and the Canadian Nature Federation. Participants pay a $15 annual fee. The Lab provides you with all instructions, including data sheets, a calendar and an identification poster. The calendar is organized into two week blocks. Sometime during each of those two week periods counters sit by their windows for one or two days and watch the birds that come to their feeders, writing down the largest number of birds of each species that they see. For example, I did all of my counts on weekends (since I work during the week). During my early December count in 2000 I saw 12 species of birds at or around my feeders and bird bath. The species ranged in numbers from Ruby Crowned Kinglet (1 bird) to House Finches (28 birds). I usually counted for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon on each of my count days. Some counters spend more time, some spend less - an hour or so during each count period. On the data sheets provided you mark down the approximate high and low temperature, approximate level of precipitation, and amount of time spent counting during the day. At the end of the count, in March or April, you send all the data to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where it is tabulated along with the data results from thousands of other counters all across the country. Participants have the option of submitting data either by filling out the data booklet and returning it to the Lab, or by entering data directly to the Lab via the World Wide Web.
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