REGION — Northeast PA Audubon Society is asking for volunteers to join the Annual International Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Saturday, December 14, 2019.

Volunteer birders will travel the area beginning at dawn and ending when the last volunteer is finished. The count was established in 1900, as an alternative to the year-end “side hunt,” when hunters would take to the fields to shoot as many birds as possible before sitting down to Christmas dinner.

Today’s count mobilizes over 70,000 volunteer bird counters in more than 2,300 locations across the Western Hemisphere. The CBC utilizes the power of volunteers to track the health of bird populations at a scale that professional scientists could not accomplish alone. Because birds are an early indicator of environmental threats to habitats, tracking and recording changes in their location are valuable to the understanding of weather patterns and consequently, the changing climate and its effect on our world.

White Mills, PA is the center of the count circle which was established over 25 years ago. Since then, volunteers have counted as many as 45 species including waterfowl and wintering hawks. There has been an increase in bald eagles in the area and the occasional common loon. Counters travel by car and on foot within designated areas of the 15-mile-wide circle.

If you are interested, call Barbara at 570/253-2364. You don’t have to be an expert birder, because you will be partnered with more experienced volunteers. You can also count from your window feeder.