The National Audubon Society’s 106^th Annual Christmas Bird Count will be conducted at Walker Lake this year on Friday, December 23, 2005. The Walker Lake Interpretive Association will host the event that will begin with an early briefing conducted by Dennis Serdehely, representative from the National Audubon Society. Following the briefing, the bird count volunteers will form groups to go out and count birds in areas around Walker Lake. After the bird count is finished, the participants will meet around 5:00 pm to report their findings.

The Walker Lake Interpretive Association is requesting volunteers to assist with vital fact gathering that will help to estimate the distribution and abundance of wintering birds around Walker Lake. The results from the Walker Lake Christmas Bird Count will be compiled with the nation-wide census and listed in the journal North American Birds. In the previous year’s 2004-2005 Journal of American Birds, “Walker Lake was reported as being so low that a boat could not be launched for the count.” It was also reported that, “although the waterfowl numbers were down, there was a vast amount of shorebird habitat, and two count-first shorebird species--five Snowy Plovers and a Spotted Sandpiper--were recorded. Further stated, “there was enough water for a single American White Pelican, the only one found on a Nevada Christmas Bird Count for the year.”

The Annual Christmas Bird Count originated in the early 1900’s by Frank Chapman of the American Museum of Natural History in New York when he proposed a Christmas Bird Count instead of a Christmas bird hunt. This effort has grown to become the largest citizen science program in ornithology and has led to the creation of a law to protect the birds. Each year since 1900, the National Audubon Society compiles an annual census of wintering bird populations that is used as an estimate of the distribution and abundance of wintering birds in North America. Each local count covers a fifteen-mile area in diameter. Birders of all levels are encouraged to participate. Since this is an all day event, volunteers are encouraged to dress appropriately and bring food and snacks, along with binoculars, scopes, cameras and field guides. Each participant is required to donate a $5.00 fee to handle the compiling and publishing costs of the North American Birds journal where the results will be published.

For more information please contact Dennis Serdehely birders@gbis.com or (775) 575-0319
or
 Bonnie Rannald @ 775-945-9088

National Audubon Society

Lahontan Audubon Society