A one and a two … bird and flower count set for Sunday

By Peggy Revell on May 25, 2018.

Medicine Hat’s Spring Bird and Flower Count is set to return this Sunday.

The annual event is a companion to the annual Christmas count launched more than 100 years ago by the Audubon Society, said Marty Drut, an interpreter with Police Point Park that is helping to organize the event.

“It’s not as traditionally organized as the Christmas count, but the information goes to a central location and data is available for all different kinds of wildlife and land management agencies to use,” he said. The information also gives a snapshot of what birds are in a particular area.

The spring count essentially follows the same rules as the Christmas count — with a 12-km radius circle around a central location divided into territories that are surveyed by individuals, said Drut.

“The spring count is a little bit more challenging than the winter count,” he said, “in that a lot of the birds that you try to count, you’re doing it by hearing them vs. seeing them.”

At this time of the year, almost all the birds are breeding so the males have a call or song they use to announce an area as their territory, he said.

The spring count also means many more species of birds present, he said. Around 50 species are counted at Christmas time, while it’s usually around 150 during the spring count.

Alongside counting birds, participants will also be counting flowers — from native prairie plants, to ones introduced to the region, to invasive species.

“We’re looking for particular species that are blooming in the area, and then just check them off and acknowledge their presence or absence,” said Drut.

If people are interested in volunteering, they can contact the Nature Centre at 403-529-6225 to sign up.

And if any Hatter has questions about birds or flowers, Drut encourages them to get in touch with the Nature Centre.