Birders take part in annual Christmas bird count

Wascana Park was busy but quiet Sunday as birders took part in Nature Saskatchewan’s annual Christmas bird count.

 

The Christmas bird count is an international event aimed at connecting people with nature and learning about birds.

 

About 80 people were scattered around Wascana Park counting and identifying birds in the area.

 

“A wide variety of birds call Regina home in the winter,” Lacey Weekes, a conservation and education manager at Nature Saskatchewan, said. “Black capped chickadees, red (and white) breasted nuthatches, lots of different woodpeckers and last year we saw a prairie falcon, that was the first time we spotted it in our count.”

 

Groups of participants were paired with bird experts who kept the official tally and confirmed the indentification of the species.

 

“It’s a great time to start to learn your birds because there aren’t as many as in the summer time. So it’s a great starting point to learn your birds in the winter,” Weekes said.

 

Nature Saskatchewan said the count also helps scientific studies. The information collected from the count gets put into a database for scientists across the country to research.

 

“Birds are bio indicators and can tell us a lot about the health of our environment based on their distribution and range,” Weekes added. “Scientists will use the data collected to get a better idea of what the change in climate is doing to our bird species and wildlife in general.”

 

In last year’s bird count at Wascana Lake, Nature Saskatchewan spotted 15 different species and 280 individual birds.