Volunteers can help with annual bird count
PENN TWP — Residents can help develop a snapshot of the ecological state of Butler County by participating in the South Butler Christmas Bird Count Jan. 2.
Local volunteer bird watchers can usher in 2016 by participating in the annual counting of birds and noting of species.
“This will be our fourth bird count. We have grown substantially every year,” said Chris Kubiak, development associate of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. “We had a 100 volunteers last year. Unfortunately six hours of freezing rain cut the numbers. This year, if the weather is nice, we could have those numbers.”
People interested in participating in the 2016 count should contact Kubiak by calling the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania at 412-963-6100 or by e-mailing ckubiak@aswp.org.
Prospective watchers don’t need prior birdwatching experience. Kubiak said novice birders would be paired with more experienced partners when the volunteers meet at 8 a.m. Jan. 2 at Succop Nature Park, 185 W. Airport Road.
Kubiak said volunteer pairs will be dispatched in a circle with a 15-mile diameter in southern Butler County centered on Callery to observe, record and report on the numbers and species of birds present in the area from sunrise to sunset.
Kubiak said if people don’t want to go into the field, they can participate in the bird watch by observing and recording the birds that are coming to their feeders or into their backyards.
Ryan Stauffer, the Succop Nature Park naturalist, will conduct a children’s bird count from 10 a.m. to noon at the nature park.
“We’ll get the next generation of birders excited,” said Stauffer.
The watchers will send their observations to Kubiak who said he would take a week or more to compile the data, which can reveal previously unnoticed trends.
“Going back the last couple of years, we’ve noticed a large uptick in woodpecker species, particularly downy and red-bellied woodpeckers,” said Kubiak.
“The theory we’ve come up with is that we’ve had a major loss of ash trees from an invasive species, the emerald ash borer. The dead trees provide the food that can support a large population of woodpeckers,” he said.
“Increased population is a huge indicator that something in the environment has changed,” said Kubiak.
Stauffer said, “We can predict die-offs of different bird populations. It doesn’t also mean something’s up, but it could be.”
Kubiak said through the bird counts the Audubon Society has been getting some extremely good science readings, and the citizen scientists of the bird count are playing an important role.
“The more people, the clearer picture we get,” he said.
“Data is gold to scientists. The more data they have, the more they can see what is going on,” he added.
Kubiak will send the county bird watch results on to the Audubon Society.
Kubiak said the count is the world’s longest running wildlife census. The Audubon Society has been conducting the bird count since 1900.
The count is just one of several events in which citizen scientists can take part:
Jan. 30: Frog Watch. Participants will spend two hours at Succop Nature Park learning to identify the calls of various amphibians. Participants will listen for various frog species later in the year making note of the time and temperature.
April 9: Bud Burst. Participants will learn the science of phenology, the study of how nature times events, said Stauffer. “Phenology can predict population and range changes. The lore of when to plant and reap, that’s phenology.”
