Join the annual Christmas bird count at Great Sand Dunes
BIRDERS and nature enthusiasts in the San Luis Valley will join birders across the western hemisphere to participate in Audubon’s longest-running wintertime tradition – the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) at Great Sand Dunes National Park on Friday, Dec. 23, at 8 a.m.
Birders of all skill levels are invited and encouraged to participate.
To participate in the bird count at Great Sand Dunes, register with the park and sign up as a park volunteer. Contact the Visitor Center at 719-378-6395 between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to register. Participants who are registered as park volunteers will receive an entrance fee waiver for the day of the bird count. Volunteers must arrive at the park by 7:45 a.m. on Dec. 23 to complete volunteer paperwork, review safety guidelines and receive a map of an assigned area and instructions for returning count results.
For more information on the bird count, contact Dewane Mosher: Dewane_Mosher@nps.gov.
The longest-running citizen science survey in the world, Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count takes place nationwide in late December each year. Tens of thousands of volunteers throughout North America brave winter weather to add a new layer to over a century of data.
The Christmas Bird Count began when 27 conservationists in 25 localities changed the course of ornithological history. On Christmas Day in 1900, the small group posed an alternative to the “side hunt,” a Christmas day activity in which teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds and small mammals. Instead, it was proposed that they identify, count, and record all the birds they saw, founding what is now considered to be the world’s most significant citizen-based conservation effort.
The CBC is vital in monitoring the status of resident and migratory birds across the Western Hemisphere, and the data – which are 100% volunteer generated – have become a crucial part of the U.S. Government’s natural history monitoring database.
Please go to the Audubon website for additional information, news, and history on the Christmas Bird Count.
