[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

100th X-mas Bird Count Release - long



FYI -- The following went out today to newspaper, TV and radio outlets
across NC.  Feel free to pass it on to your own local media contact who
might want to cover a count in your area; and let me know if you see any
coverage.  I apologize for the garbled table at the bottom -- it is hard to
cut and paste into email.  I can send in better form to anyone needing it.  

Note to compilers:  If contacted by media, my only referral for a specific
count is to compilers listed in the 1998-99 American Birds, so you may be
hearing from me or the media.  Please work with them as best you can as I
have only limited knowledge on individual count circles.  Thanks, and good
luck with this year's centennial count!

Chris Canfield
Director of Development
NC State Office, National Audubon Society
410 Airport Rd.
Chapel Hill, NC  27514
919-929-3899 (phone/fax)
email: ccanfield@audubon.org 


NC BIRDERS CELEBRATE 100 YEARS OF AUDUBON'S CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT

CHAPEL HILL, NC, December 10, 1999 - It's that time of year again.  Time for
frantically checking off lists, navigating from one gathering to the next,
and trying to remember names for those you rarely see otherwise.  That's
right, it's time for the Christmas Bird Count.  Run by the National Audubon
Society, this holiday bird census has been a unique way for many bird lovers
to celebrate the season for 100 years. 

Every year in North Carolina, hundreds of birdwatchers at more than 40 sites
across the state gather before dawn on a day between mid-December and early
January.  Working well into the night, their goal is to identify and count
every bird they can find in a circle 15 miles wide.  

Each group then enters the findings into an international database
<http://birdsource.cornell.edu/cbc/> that now houses records from thousands
of counts over the past 100 years, the oldest and most extensive record of
its kind.  Scientists use the data to track general population trends for
various bird species.  The resulting studies help show impacts of pollution
and habitat destruction.

North Carolina's oldest active count circle dates from 1903, started in
Durham just three years after Ornithologist Frank Chapman originated the
survey. Chapman began the count to protest a Christmas tradition called the
"side hunt," in which participants hunted all species, the winner having
shot the most individuals and types of birds.  In the early years, most
teams for the new kind of non-lethal Christmas count were in the Northeast,
but other regions, including North Carolina, joined quickly. 

Tarheel birders in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Brevard and Winston-Salem added
counts in 1917, 1924, 1930 and 1940, respectively, that are still going
strong today.  Many others in North Carolina - including those in Buncombe
and Iredell counties and at Ocracoke Island - joined the Christmas Bird
Count in the 1970s and 1980s in response to the growth of the national
conservation movement.  A relative newcomer, the Southport-Bald Head-Oak
Islands count, garnered honors last year for the most species observed in
the state, with 162.

Nationally, count data marked the decline in several birds, including the
Peregrine Falcon, Trumpeter Swan and Bald Eagle, which were subsequently
listed as endangered.  Decades later, the count also helped the U.S.
government chart the rebound of these same species, which have either been
removed or proposed for removal from the endangered species list.

The Christmas Bird Count is the original "citizen science" project and has
given rise to many other ways birdwatchers contribute data for conservation
studies.  Today, birding is among the fastest growing activities in America,
engaging 50 million people who feed, identify and make scientific
observations on wild birds.

Founded in 1905 and with over a million members and supporters in 520
chapters throughout the Americas, the National Audubon Society conserves and
restores natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their
habitats.  North Carolina has been at the forefront of the Audubon movement
since Greensboro's T. Gilbert Pearson, eventually president of the national
organization, established the first Audubon Society of North Carolina in
1902.

-30-

[Editor:  Attached is a list of 1998-99 Christmas Bird Count locations in
North Carolina.  If you wish to find a local count leader, please contact
Chris Canfield, or call a local leader of an Audubon chapter.  Dates of
counts listed are from last year and may not occur on the same relative date
this year.  Audubon offices will be closed December 25-January 2.
Additional general information on the CBC can be obtained from the National
Audubon Society website http://www.audubon.org/bird/ or the Birdsource site
listed above.]

MEDIA CONTACT:

Chris Canfield, North Carolina State Office, Chapel Hill	919-929-3899
ccanfield@audubon.org


1998-99 NORTH CAROLINA CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT CIRCLES

Count date (98-99)	Name of Count Circle	Number of Bird Species
Counted  Year Range of Counts
1/2/99	Alamance County	57	91-99
12/29/98	Bodie-Pea Island	148	47-99
12/18/98	Brevard	71	30-99
12/20/98	Buncombe County	68	73-99
12/30/98	Cape Hatteras	131	82-99
12/20/98	Central Beaufort County	101	60-99
12/27/98	Chapel Hill	86	24-99
1/2/99	Charlotte	74	42-99
12/27/98	Cumberland County	79	93-99
12/20/98	Durham	97	3-99
1/2/99	Falls Lake	90	99-99
1/2/99	Gastonia	59	98-99
12/30/98	Grandfather Mountain	39	80-99
12/19/98	Greensboro	81	45-99
1/3/99	Greenville	104	50-99
12/27/98	Henderson County	78	98-99
1/3/99	Highlands Plateau	47	97-99
1/3/99	Iredell County	64	81-99
1/3/99	Jordan Lake	91	78-99
1/1/99	Kitty Hawk	100	98-99
12/27/98	Mattamuskeet N.W.R.	150	83-99
12/20/98	Morehead City	156	73-99
12/19/98	Mount Jefferson	54	92-99
12/21/98	New Bern	122	91-99
12/26/98	New River	64	91-99
1/1/99	Ocracoke Island	94	82-99
2/2/99	Pamlico County	99	66-99
1/3/99	Pee Dee N.W.R.	92	97-99
12/29/98	Pettigrew S.P.	88	87-99
12/31/98	Portsmouth Island	71	89-99
12/19/98	Raleigh	101	17-99
12/19/98	Raven Rock S.P.	87	84-99
N/A	Roanoke Rapids	88	79-99
12/20/98	Southern Lake Norman	93	93-99
12/20/98	Southern Pines	95	74-99
1/3/99	Southport-Bald Head-Oak Islands	162	86-99
1/2/99	Stone Mountain	57	93-99
12/19/98	Tryon	62	75-99
12/19/98	Wayne County	109	89-99
1/2/99	Wilmington	158	46-99
1/2/99	Winston-Salem	77	40-99

- END -