The groups walk through the park for about an hour to discover how many birds they can see.
A bird count for kids returns Saturday to Sarnia’s Canatara Park.
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The annual Christmas Bird Count for Kids, ages six to 12, is held at the city park by Lambton Wildlife Inc. and a Young Naturalist Club supports it.
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Registration is open for a limited number of spots available for the free event, which starts at the Canatara Park Carriage House, next to Children’s Animal Farm, at 9:30 am and runs until noon.
For registration information, visit lambtonwildlife.comthe organization’s Facebook page gold email [email protected].
“We love doing it,” said Anne Goulden, an event organizer. “We love seeing faces we’re seen before and love seeing new faces.”
Kids taking part must be accompanied by a parent, guardian or sibling over age 16.
“We have about 25 pairs of binoculars we can lend out for the . . . bird count and we have bird guides that will take groups,” of two to six kids and their parents, Goulden said.
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The groups walk through the park for about an hour to discover how many birds they can see.
“We have a record of the other years, what we saw and how many we saw, so we kind of do a little comparison,” Goulden said.
Typically, groups see about 15 types of birds, but the total number can vary, particularly if there are many ducks out on the water on count day, she said.
“Redhead ducks and long-tailed ducks. . . are only here in the winter, so if they’re lucky enough they might be able to see something like that,” Goulden said.
“Usually they see chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, mallards,” she said. Other varieties can include herring gulls, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers and nuthatches.
But Sarnia’s recently named official bird, the red-headed woodpecker, isn’t typically around in the winter, she said.
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A snowfall would make the bird count, since birds tend to congregate when one finds food in the snow, Goulden said. And the white background can make birds easier to spot.
Canatara Park is a prime spot for birdwatching since it attracts both forest and water birds, she said. Also, it’s part of the Carolinian forest with trees and plants that attract particular varieties of birds.
“We’re very, very lucky to live in Lambton County, the Sarnia area,” Goulden said. “The birds, through the year, that we get here are the envy of places all over Ontario.”
Christmas bird counts, held in North America since 1900, are billed as the longest-running citizen science project.
Results of the Sarnia event are reported to Birds Canada, Goulden said. Researchers then take information gathered from different locations and compare it to other years.
After participants review what they spotted on Saturday’s walks, there will be snacks and a grab bag to take home.
There are plenty of benefits for kids who take up birding, Goulden said.
“The more time kids are outside, the better it is for them in all parts of their lives,” she said.
They also can become “more aware of our environment and more conscious of how we use things, what we throw away, where we throw it away,” Goulden said.
“It just makes us better citizens all around.”
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