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Christmas Bird Counts!
December 23, 2017 @ 7:00 am - 5:00 pm
Free
Christmas Bird Counts
Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Superior, Oak Flat & Queen Valley
Saturday, December 23 from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
How did Christmas Bird Counts begin? The Audubon Society reports: “prior to the turn of the 20th century, hunters engaged in a holiday tradition known as the ‘Christmas Side Hunt.’ They would choose sides and go afield with their guns-whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won. Conservation was in its beginning stages in that era, and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, an early officer in the then-nascent Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition-a ‘Christmas Bird Census’ that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.”
Read more: http://www.audubon.org/history-christmas-bird-count
Birders enthused to join this venerable holiday tradition may participate with our local Superior ‘CBC’ on Dec. 23, Saturday. Coordinator Cynthia Donald arranges teams to census sparrows and tally towhees from Queen Valley and Whitlow Dam to Hewitt Station Road, desert foothills below Picketpost Mountain, here at BTA and the town of Superior – and up Queen Creek Canyon to the Oak Flat campground. Birders of all physical abilities are welcome; you don’t have to be a hiker to participate – in fact, Cynthia would welcome a team of ‘urban birders’ enthused to canvass Superior neighborhoods by car. To volunteer with this count or request more information, call Cynthia at 480.283.4515 or email: [email protected]