Sunday, December 14th, was our first Christmas Bird Count (CBC) of the winter. The Rock Cut State Park CBC [count code ILRC] is a brand new count, covering Rock Cut State Park and much of Boone County Illinois. The Birdfreak Team is completely in charge of creating, organizing and compiling this new count. Groups were
Category: Bird Conservation
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s new BirdSleuth Curriculum
BirdSleuth (formerly Classroom BirdWatch) was funded with a grant from the National Science Foundation. It is an additional science curriculum with a goal to get kids outside to study the local environment and learn to ask and answer questions. They also learn to become actual citizen scientists. Now they have revised one of their modules
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C-Notes #9 – Restoring the Everglades and South American Grasslands
Everglade Restoration – The state of Florida will be buying 187,000 acres of the Everglades owned by the U.S. Sugar Corporation. The Everglades is a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve and an American Bird Conservancy-designated Globally Important Bird Area. “Governor [Charlie] Crist deserves an enormous amount of praise…for this announcement,” said Kirk Fordham,
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C-Notes #8 – YouTube, Western Bluebirds and NMBCA
ABC’s YouTube Channel – The American Bird Conservancy has a YouTube channel featuring bird news and bird videos. They are constantly adding new video so check them out! Western Bluebird Reintroduction Project – According to The American Bird Conservancy, transplanted Western Bluebirds have successfully nested in the San Juan Islands in Washington. On these ancestral
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Deer Run Bird Survey Completed (Sort of)
This past year we have been surveying Deer Run Forest Preserve in an attempt to categorize, in a systematic way, the bird diversity of this prairie/oak savanna habitat. While we started out strong, some bumps along the way led to not as many surveys as we had hoped but still some interesting results. Prothonotary Warbler
Citizen Science – Rusty Blackbirds
Over the past years there has been an 88-98 percent drop in the population of the Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus). This lesser-known blackbird was formerly an incredibly abundant bird and this decline in population is one of the most drastic in North America. Last spring, eBird tracked Rusty Blackbird populations during spring migration and found
C-Notes #7 – Coffee and Green Gifts
Good Earth Coffee – The coffee and tea company Good Earth Coffee has a mission to provide food that is good for consumers as well as the environment. One of their new promotions urges coffee drinkers to take the “Brew At Home” Pledge. By drinking coffee brewed at home we can all help reduce the
Big Sit 2008 – Rock Cut State Park – Record Broken!
The Big Sit for 2008 is over and we paid the price for only a couple hours of sleep. But after our third year in a row participating in the Big Sit at Rock Cut State Park, we broke our record and then some! Before we could get our count on, we had to wait
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