Blackbrook prepares birders for the Christmas Bird Count

About this event

Blackbrook Audubon's November program will get birders ready to participate in this year's Christmas Bird Count. Blackbrook's Vice President, Alison Huey, will explain how people can help birds with this annual survey in the field or from their feeders.

Bird-Lore editor Frank Chapman proposed the first official CBC in 1900, according to the National Audubon Society. He may have been inspired by an Oberlin University Ornithology professor, Lynds Jones , who conducted a Christmas-time survey in 1897 and suggested birders do them regularly. The annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count is the longest running citizen science program in the United States.

After the presentation, Blackbrook will hold their annual ticket auction of nature-themed items and a 50/50 raffle. Some of the prizes include five pounds of bird seed every month for a year donated by Wild Birds Unlimited, a John Ruthven Bald Eagle print and a Charley Harper jigsaw puzzle. They will also pull the winning ticket for a handmade quilt. Proceeds from the different raffles will go toward the 2027 Blackbrook Audubon Education Scholarship awarded to a local college student in environmental studies.

Blackbrook will also have copies of the Lake Erie Birding Trail Guidebook for $15 each.

Blackbrook will provide cider and light refreshments. They encourage program attendees to bring their own beverage containers so they will be eligible to participate in the Bring Your Own Mug raffle. The drawing for a $25 gift card will be held at a future program meeting and the winner need not be present.

Registration is not required for the evening's free program. There will be no Holden Arboretum entrance fee that evening.

Blackbrook Audubon covers Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake Counties as the local chapter of National Audubon Society. For more information, email blackbrookaud@aol.com . Follow Blackbrook Audubon Society on Facebook for update.

Photo: 40" x 64" handmade quilt being raffled off tonight