The day was cloudy and zero degrees in the morning on December 21 2014 and the Berwick YNC went out to count birds for the annual Solstice (Christmas) Bird Count. First we went on an hour walk through the woods and then watched the feeding station for 30 minutes. Since it has been fairly warm this season and the ground is mostly uncovered still, we have not seen a large amount of birds visiting the feeding station. This should change as the snow sets in and the birds are searching for food. Here are the birds we counted:

This Bird Count is an annual event and is contributing to the international bird data collection at Cornell University. This citizen science initiative will help us track the changes in bird population trends and highlight those species that may be in decline. The knowledge that this data provides can then serve to focus conservation efforts. You can also find all of the bird counts at www.ebird.org.

Also, I would like to thank Walkers Livestock and Feed Supply for providing us bird seed, bird pie and feeder mounts. We used the bird seeds when we make bird seed balls … here is a link to the bird ball feeder recipe http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/resources/2010/fat-block-bird-feeder/.