Volunteer Now to Count Breeding Birds in June
Want to help birds in a big way? Join the ranks of birding enthusiasts who volunteer two mornings each breeding season surveying our breeding birds, adding to 20+ years of a valuable dataset - essential to land managers and researchers. Our breeding birds truly are "the canaries in the coal mine."
The Bird Conservation Network (BCN) is actively recruiting new monitors for its annual BCN Survey. Thorn Creek Audubon is a BCN member and a funding sponsor of BCN’s recently published 22-year analysis of breeding birds in Chicagoland.
This important community science project relies on birders with sufficient experience to tally species present at a preserve during the June and early July breeding season.
You don't need to be a super birder, but bird survey participants should be able to identify birds breeding in our area by sound as well as by sight. You can volunteer to monitor alone, or you can team up with a birding friend to monitor together. Only one birder in a team needs to be adept at identifying birds by sound.
What Volunteers Do
Monitoring entails two bird survey visits in June or early July at your chosen preserve. You go to pre-determined points throughout the preserve and count the birds seen and heard for five minutes at each point.
After wrapping up your count, you enter your results into a special BCN section of eBird, and you’re done.
The first year that volunteers survey a preserve, they also visit it in advance to locate the count points and plan their route.
Not Sure You Can Do It?
BCN supports monitors with training that includes process guidelines, plus tools for enhancing your skill set for birding by ear. If you are not confident in your birding ID skills, BCN can pair you with an experienced monitor to get you started.
Have Some Favorite Birding Spots?
Chances are good that one or more of them is a monitoring site opportunity. Become one of BCN’s 200+ monitors – collecting vital information on species abundance and their population trends. Your time spent monitoring will make a world of difference for the birds!
To learn more, register your interest at: www.bcnbirds.org/monitoring
March 31, 2023