Valentine's Day Is Going to the Birds ...
... And that's a good thing for lovers and our feathered friends.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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This year, Valentine’s Day coincides with the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). While flowers and chocolates and candy are great, the count gives lovers a new way to spend this most romantic of days.
According to Amy Gardner of Wren & Sparrow in downtown Fredericksburg, the “GBBC is a fantastic citizen science event that has been around since 1998.”
Overseen by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the GBBC harnesses the eyes and ears of the thousands of birdwatchers around the world to “provide quality data for [scientists] to interpret” Gardner told the Advance in an email, so “they can get a better picture of the overall health and population of birds. Especially in places that the researchers are not physically located or do not have the personnel to send.”
The process is simple, and anyone can get involved — even if you’re a novice or first-time birder.
“[A]ll a person has to do,” says Gardner, “is pick a place and watch, listen and record all of the birds that they see or hear.”
Participants can use the Merlin app, which allows users to identify birds by sound and by picture, and the eBird app, which allows users to track the birds they see, to submit their findings. You will need an ebird account, which can be created on the eBird website.
The GBBC official spans four days, from February 14 through February 17, but participants need only watch for 15 minutes and report what they see in order for their identifications to count.
And the Greater Fredericksburg region, as it turns out, is a great place to watch birds.
“[W]e have such varied habitats and food available all year,” Gardner said. “We have birds that stay here year round, birds that migrate here in the spring and leave in the fall, and birds that migrate to our area in the winter, such as the Dark Eyed Juncos and the White Throated Sparrow.”
So this Valentine’s Day, grab you partner and find a favorite spot to watch, admire, and count the birds that you see.
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