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Community Corner

Fanwoodians Count Borough's Birds for Good Cause

The event was part of an annual nationwide count.

Three locals braved the cold weather Sunday morning to get a good look at Fanwood's bird population.

Kalpana Krishna Kumar, Dean Talcott, and Dolores Batz-Culp gathered at the Fanwood Nature Center to join professional and amateur bird watchers across the country in counting and documenting birds as part of the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. In its 13th year, the event is sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society and takes place across the country each year over Presidents Day weekend.

"It's a citizen science project," said Krishna Kumar, the organizer and nature center's caretaker. "Basically what they are looking for are people like you and me to count the birds in our backyard and send them the result."

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The purpose of this event is to create a census of the birds.  By doing this it is possible to get a sense of bird populations and trends.  For example, Krishna Kumar said, over the past few years people have reported seeing more and more finches further north. The bird count also allows experts to track the spread and effect of diseases on the bird populations. Krishna Kumar explained that the American Crows have recently suffered a drop in population because the bird was affected by the West Nile Virus and therefore went from being the fourth or fifth most common bird spotted to the ninth or tenth most common. Also, Chickadees and Juncos have been plagued by conjunctivitis similar to the human Pink Eye. By having people report what they see, the experts can see the extent of the damage that a disease has had.

Krishna Kumar said the method for counting requires reporting several pieces of information either online or by mail.  These include the type of area you were watching in (suburban, open field, forest, etc.), weather conditions, birder's experience level, amount of time watching, and more. Then the person writes each type of bird seen and the number seen.  

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"How you count the birds is you watch birds, for at least 15 minutes they recommend, or as long as you want," Krishna Kumar said. "You count the number of birds that come to that spot. You don't double count them. You count the maximum number of birds during the period that you saw.  So if I saw two White-throated Sparrows and then they flew away and then they came back and then there was a third one that came, my highest count is three."

One factor influencing the types of birds in the Scotch Plains-Fanwood area over this past weekend was the snow.

"I've never seen this much snow on the ground since I've started the count," Krishna Kumar said. "When the ground is clear, I guess they can actually get to the ground and get the worm. The worm eating birds are definitely not going to come out. The seed eating birds will come out if you put the seed out. They have to come out and eat, it's just that probably they huddle up, they stay indoors."

This "indoors" seems to refer to bushes covered in snow, which Krishna Kumar had seen birds entering. It serves as a sort of igloo-type shelter where birds can hide from the cold for a period of time.

While the Fanwood bird count was not attended well people-wise, it did afford an opportunity to get an up close look at a variety of birds. Species seen during the count include: Cardinals, Blue Jays, Mourning Doves, a couple different species of Sparrow, Chickadees, a Hairy Woodpecker, and a Nuthatch. 

For more information on the Great Backyard Bird Count, or to find out how you can participate, go here.

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