A children’s Christmas Bird Count is returning to Sarnia’s Canatara Park Dec. 31.
It will be third holiday season bird count for children age six to 12, who are accompanied by an adult, that has been organized by Lambton Wildlife and its Young Nats Club at the Sarnia park, but the first one since the pandemic began.
Information on how to register can be found online – https://lambtonwildlife.com/2022/12/22/christmas-bird-count-for-kids-cbc4kids/
Anne Goulden, with organizing group, said its first bird count for kids was held after Christmas in 2018 and repeated in 2019, before COVID-19 hit and the event was paused because of restrictions.
About 15 to 18 to youngsters, plus adults accompanying them, took part the last year it was held, she said.
More than 20 kids were already registered before Christmas Day and there’s room for a total of 30, Goulden said. The event is free.
The count will begin at 9:30 am at the carriage house near the Children’s Animal Farm entrance.
“We have volunteer bird guides – people that know about birds,” Goulden said.
Organizers will have some binoculars youngsters can borrow for the count, if they aren’t able to bring their own.
Children, with their guardians, will be placed in smaller groups to walk to different areas of Canatara Park to look for birds and record the ones they see.
“They do that for about an hour and then the all come back to the meeting place and we’ll go over the results,” Goulden said.
“We’ll do hot chocolate and cookies, and then we’ll send them home with a little bag with a pinecone, birdseed and instructions on how to put it together so they can have their own little bird feeder.”
Goulden said the organization wants to encourage young people to get outside and connect with nature.
“The more you learn about nature, the more you care about nature,” she said. “The more you care about nature, the more you do to preserve it.”
Canatara Park is “an excellent spot to see birds,” even at the end of December, Goulden said.
“We have a lot of birds that over-winter.”
All of the information collected at the count is passed along to Birds Canada.
“Adult Christmas bird counts have been going on for over 100 years,” Goulden said.
Kids’ Christmas bird counts were started in 2007 in California by a birding club there, she said.