A busy day for local bird watchers Tuesday, December 19, with the annual High River Christmas Bird Count.

The data gathered will be shared with the National Audubon Society, which in turn will help them determine migration patterns and the overall numbers of species moving through the area over the winter.

Those taking part can meet at the Polo Park Community Centre between 7 and 8 a.m., where you'll be put into groups and sent to different parts of High River and the surrounding area.

Those who can't make it out, can count birds coming to their yards or feeders and send the info into Greg Wagner who's organizing the event at: greg.wagner@athene.ca or you can call him at (403)333-1200.

The day winds up with a pot-luck supper back at Polo Park.

Here's the areas the count will cover:

In terms of the count, we have divided the count circle into the following areas.

Town of High River

High River North - all of the town north of the River.

High River West - the town south of the river and west of the railway tracks.

High River Middle - the town south of the river between the railway tracks and Fifth Street SE.

High River East - the town south of the river and east of Fifth Street SE.

Rural

River Road –

Northwest - all of the rural area in the count circle north and west of the Highwood River -

East - all of the rural area north of Highway 23 and east of Highwood River -

Southeast - all of the rural area south of Highway 23 and east of Highway 2. Includes open water areas of Frank Lake. Leader:

South - all of the rural area west of Highway 2 and south of River Road.

Alderheights – Might be able to get a group of people living in Alderheights to do this area.

Owling - Would anyone like to go and call owls (Great Horned and Saw-whet, remote possibility of a Long-eared) along River Road on the night of the count?
 

Many groups have already expressed interest in doing certain areas.

Please let me know if you have a preference for a particular location.

I will try to accommodate the best I can.

We generally need more birders for the town than the rural areas.

We may also split the rural areas into smaller units depending on the number of people attending.

I can also put together three long walking routes along railway right-of-ways.

These would run from High River north to Aldersyde, High River south to the edge of the count circle, and the Highwood River east to the edge of the count circle.

Let me know if you are interested in any of these.
 

Count rules allow us to record species observed in the three days proceeding and three days following count day.

I would appreciate people sending me their observations from Saturday, December 16 to Friday, December 22, 2017.


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