Community Corner
4-Day National Bird Watch Event At Great Swamp Center
A special program for kids and others who want to take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count is being offered by Friends of Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge during the
nationwide avian census event from Feb. 17-20.
Events at the Refuge in the Helen C. Fenske Visitors Center, 32 Pleasant Plains Road, Harding Township, in addition to bird spotting, counting and species identification will include making various types of bird feeders and guided walks.
The program, open to all ages, will have participants spotting and identifying birds attracted to feeders at the center and tallied on a whiteboard.
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Laurel Gould, Friends treasurer, said the group “will try to help people learn the common bird species as we do the
count.” Those who attend will be given a flier describing common types that can be seen with a place to tally the varieties that they view.
In addition to novice bird spotters at the center, Gould said that more experienced birders will report findings from out in the Refuge. Each day, visitors can watch as results of the count are reported online to the birdcount.org website.
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Counting at the Center is from noon to 4 p.m. Friday and Monday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The program is conducted by the Friends of the Great Swamp in concert with the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
A joint project, the Great Backyard Bird Count includes Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is sponsored in part by Wild Birds Unlimited nature shop. Data from persons who take part in the count will go into the Avian Knowledge Network at the Cornell Lab, a
database that currently has more than 112.8 million bird observation records.
Besides participating at nature centers like the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, persons involved in the count can take part from virtually anywhere including their own backyards or office windows and involvement can run from 15 minutes to the whole weekend, according to organizers. More detail and data entry can be made online at www.birdcount.org
Pat Leonard, with the Cornell Lab, said the count can serve as an early warning system to protect local bird communities by revealing, for example, a population dropoff in a particular species. Friends of Great Swamp NWR are at 973 425-9510 or friendsofgreatswamp.org.
