Christmas bird counts have been organized in Port Townsend, Neah Bay, the Sequim-Dungeness area and Port Angeles.
The annual counts will be Saturday in Port Townsend, Sunday in Neah Bay, Monday in the Sequim-Dungeness area and Saturday, Dec. 30 in Port Angeles.
Each Christmas bird count covers a 15-mile diameter count circle, so event organizers are looking for plenty of participants to cover as much of the areas as possible, even if they simply count their feeders or stroll around their neighborhood for an hour or two.
The count is not just a species tally — all birds are counted all day, giving an indication of the total number of birds in the circle that day.
The Christmas Bird Count is a long-standing program of the National Audubon Society, with more than 100 years of citizen science involvement.
It is an early-winter bird census, where thousands of volunteers across the U.S., Canada and many countries in the Western Hemisphere go out during a 24-hour period on one calendar day to count birds.
For more about the Sequim area count — and to register — contact Bob Boekelheide at 360-808-0196 or bboek@olympus.net. In Port Townsend, contact Dan Waggoner at danwags57@gmail.com or 360-301-1788. In Neah Bay, contact Charlie Wright at cwright770@uw.edu. In Port Angeles, contact Barb Blackie at blackieb@olypen.com.
