Christmas bird count set for Sunday

By Tim Kalinowski on December 15, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

Eager birders and those looking to learn something of the wildlife in the area will be assembling on Sunday for the annual Medicine Hat Christmas bird count. A tradition now for the past 40 years, the bird count allows locals to engage with nature and meet new friends.

“It is not an organized event like most of our events,” explains Police Point Park chief park interpreter Corlaine Gardner. “If people want to go out in the field they have to register ahead of time and become part of a team. These teams have assigned territories, and go out and do it however they want to do it. We end the day with a potluck supper for everyone who has been involved, or just wants to hear the stories of what has been seen that day.”

The Christmas bird count also provides valuable data on the variety and health of local bird life, and shares it with other bird counts across the country to build up a picture of species population health.

Gardner says recent national bird counts have already revealed a valuable piece of information on Evening grosbeak populations, for example, which have shown their numbers plummeting the past few years for reasons unknown.

“If you don’t know it’s happening, you might think they are just not coming to your feeder,” she says. “Well, it turns out they are not going to anybody’s feeder.”

Gardner says the weather should be relatively mild on Sunday, which should entice more locals to come out.

“It’s fascinating,” states Gardner. “When you look at the data, you can get a real sense of how bird life has fluctuated in the area over the past number of years.”

Call Marty from the Police Point Park Medicine Hat Interpretive Program at 403-529-6225 to register to join a birding group for Sunday.

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