For the 121st year across North America – and the 27th in Timmins – the Christmas bird count takes flight this coming Saturday.
The lead for the count, Mark Joron says volunteers spread out to see how many different bird species can be seen. And in this digital photography era, you can get some good shots of them.
“It’s a 24km circle that’s centered at the corner of 655 and 101,” he says, “and we try to cover as much of that circle as we can.”
The day is split into two four-hour blocks. If you don’t want to brave the weather, you can volunteer to count birds at your back yard feeder over a four-hour period.
The field portion starts, as usual, at Mike’s Restaurant.
“Normally we kind of go into the restaurant and we all meet in there,” recalls Joron. “So we’re not doing that obviously this year. I think what we’re going to end up doing is just meeting in the parking lot between 7:30 and 8 and just do it on the tailgate of my pickup truck.”
Details are on the Timmins Bird Count Facebook page. All the data goes to Birds Canada and the Audubon Society to map the movement of birds over the years.