Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 17 december 2019

Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count stronger than ever

By KATHERINE ROTH compilers know the birds
Ít’s been 120 years since well, so it’s a great op-
New York ornithologist portunity for learning and
Frank Chapman launched mentoring,” he says.
his Christmas Bird Count As people get to know
as a bold new alternative the birds and the birders
to what had been a long- in their area, they tend to
time Christmas tradition of become pretty attached,
hunting birds. Today, the says LeBaron, who began
annual count continues, participating in the count
stronger and more impor- while a graduate student
tant than ever. in Rhode Island. He returns
“He realized that we were there for the count every
over-harvesting birds and year.
something had to be “I have Christmas Bird
done,” says Geoff LeBaron, Count friends I really only
who has led The National see at the bird count each
Audubon Society’s mas- year,” he says.
sive community science ef- Although trends docu-
fort for more than 30 years. mented by the Christmas
“People get very passion- Bird Count aren’t clear
ate about the Christmas from one year to the next
Bird Count,″ he says. ``It’s because of differences in
fun and it’s a tradition, but In this Dec. 22, 2010, file photo, Bart Siegel of New Orleans looks through binoculars for birds during weather, if you look at the
it’s also crucially important the National Audubon Society’s annual Christmas bird count on the Gulf Coast in Grand Isle, La. data from one decade
to the creatures we love.″ Associated Press to the next, you can see
Recent studies have found trends.
declining bird populations bring my daughter along Despite the project’s Each bird count party tries “The great majority of
and threats of extinction with me every year, start- name, few of the annual to document all the birds the species have moved
from climate change, hab- ing from when she was 3 bird count parties take seen or heard within a giv- northward significantly
itat loss and other causes. and we participated in place on Christmas itself en 15-mile-diameter circle and somewhat inland as
The Christmas count has the Madison, Wisconsin, although one in Chicago in one calendar day from early winter temperatures
become one of the most count,” says Brooke Bate- does so it’s possible to par- midnight to midnight at are moderating,” LeBaron
important bird databases man, senior climate sci- ticipate in more than one any point during the three- says.
because of its scale and entist at Audubon. “The bird count party. week period. “The climate is always
longevity. longevity of the count is “There’s a guy in Iowa who “That’s a pretty large area, changing, but it’s the rate
The first Christmas Bird amazing, and I doubt any- tries to do 23 counts each so we encourage peo- of change that’s so much
Count was done by just one could have imagined year, but most people ple to gather together as greater now. Life forms are
27 people at 25 locations in 1900 that it would still be don’t do that,” says LeB- many people as they can not used to adapting that
across North America, going on now.” aron. to cover the area. We quickly.”
mostly in the Northeast. This year’s bird count kicked The methodology of the want to be careful not to “The work that participants
Last year’s count involved off on Dec. 14 and contin- count has been standard- double-count anything, in the bird count are do-
over 79,000 observers in ues through Jan. 5, 2020. ized since the 1950s, and is so each person in a bird ing is so important,″ he
2,615 areas in the hemi- Anyone can participate run by a huge community count party should be as- says. ``Even if you go out
sphere, most in the United by going on the Christmas- of knowledgeable bird- signed to their own sector,” and you don’t see any
States and Canada, with BirdCount.org website. Par- count party organizers and LeBaron explains. birds at all, that’s valuable
an increasing number in ticipants do not need to data compilers. “The party leaders and information.”q
Latin America and the Car- be members of Audubon.
ribean, LeBaron says. The site shows all the ac- Mediterranean pen shell
Bird count parties, as the tive Christmas Bird Count
gatherings of volunteers groups so you can find listed as critically endangered
are called, are held in ones near you that are still
every state in the United accepting more partici- ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A contributes to clear wa- IUCN said. The new patho-
States and every province pants. fan mussel found only in ter by filtering out organic gen first appeared in 2016
in Canada, as well as in If your home is within a bird the Mediterranean was particulates. For centuries it along the Spanish coast
many parts of Mexico and count circle, you can even officially added to the list provided humans with food and has since spread
Colombia. do a count in your back- of critically endangered and one of the world’s rar- across the Mediterranean,
“It’s such a great tradi- yard just make sure you species, after scientists re- est materials: sea silk spun with an 80-100% death
tion and is making a huge let the count leader in your corded a dramatic decline from the fibers with which rate.
contribution to science. I area know in advance. in its population numbers it secures itself to the sea- Last year, when scientists
caused by a newly discov- bed. discovered it had spread to
ered pathogen. A protected species, the Greek waters, they told The
The International Union pen shell was already un- Associated Press the spe-
for Conservation of Na- der pressure from pollution, cies was at risk of extinction.
ture said in a press release illegal fishing, habitat loss, The IUCN said there was an
this week that its updated invasive species and cli- “urgent need” to set up a
Red List includes the noble mate change. “However, regional monitoring pro-
pen shell, or Pinna nobilis, none of these threats have gram for the pen shell, and
the Mediterranean’s larg- led to the extremely wide- that further research was
est mollusk. The pen shell, spread and rapid popula- needed to understand the
which can grow to more tion declines caused by disease and find ways of
than a meter (3 feet) tall, the ongoing disease,” the limiting its spread.q