CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNTS OFF
COVID-19 claims annual tradition
Birding can be a solitary passion — the keen lover of the feathered animal stalking silently through field and forest to capture the perfect moment, either through a camera lens or with another journal notation.
For more than a century, however, the Christmas season has always been the time when birdwatchers embrace flocking together, sharing their space and their reverence for birding among peers.
COVID-19 has ruined something else that was special.
“Some birders just didn't think it was appropriate, to go out during a lockdown, for something so non-essential,” said lifelong birder Paul Pratt. “They felt it would be a bad impression to give others.”
The Cedar Creek Christmas Bird Count, scheduled in the Kingsville area for this Saturday and the usual local holiday season kickoff event, was cancelled after Windsor-essex was placed in lockdown mode on Monday.
Similarly, Parks Canada on Tuesday announced that, due to stepped-up public health measures for the local region, the volunteers who organize the Point Pelee National Park Christmas bird count, which also covers a large portion of Leamington, decided to cancel the Dec. 21 event. The Holiday Beach and Lakeshore counts, both Boxing Day traditions, have also been spiked for 2020.
“The Christmas bird count is actually a great social event, it's an opportunity for birders to gather” said Pratt, president of the Essex County Field Naturalists' Club and a retired longtime City of Windsor naturalist.
A big part of the annual counts is the compilation of numbers at the end of the day — total numbers tabulated and total numbers of species observed.
“We have a huge potluck where we gather, and the stories are told about what birds we encountered ... and the miscellaneous adventures,” said Pratt.
Local organizers had already been discussing what pandemic restrictions and limitations to impose — like social distancing and urging no car pooling — when the province announced Friday that Windsor-essex would be entering grey-lockdown mode on Dec. 14 due to the rising number of local COVID-19 infections.
The first Christmas Bird Count was held in 1900, when American ornithologist Frank Chapman, appalled at the Yuletide slaughter of birds in what was then an annual holiday hunt ritual, organized and began a less bloody tradition. The rules are simple — count, record and report all the birds within a 24-kilometre diameter circle within a 24-hour period.
There are now thousands of such counts across the Americas. Birds Canada co-ordinates hundreds of such Christmas bird counts domestically, with the results compiled by the National Audubon Society to provide an annual snapshot of resident and migratory birds to assist in conservation efforts.
Birds are not only a good indicator of the overall health of a local environment, but, according to a new European study, the more different birds you see, the happier you are.