Happy New Year! Our first year of the Columbia Wetlands Water Bird Survey was a great success, and to celebrate, we wanted to share some of the highlights with you.
- Over 14,000 individual birds were counted during the spring migration surveys and over 40,000 individual birds were counted during the fall migration surveys.
- Over 50 citizen scientists participated in CWWS surveys (we only expected to have around 20!). 14 additional citizen scientists are currently on a waiting list.
- 43 high school students participated in fall migration surveys and 133 elementary students participated in outdoor birding field trips.
- 8 training sessions, 9 presentations, 2 radio interviews (including interview with Program Biologist Rachel Darvill on CBC’s DayBreak South) and 9 media articles were given on the CWWS this year due to the number of overwhelming requests!
Along with our 2016 Spring and Fall surveys, this year we’ll work hard to develop more collaboration around bird and wetland conservation with relevant agencies. We are also working to expand the number of opportunities available to engage more people in citizen science!
Last but not least we’d like to extend a huge thank you to all of our wonderful and hardworking volunteers!!
Tentative dates for the spring migration surveys are, April 3rd, 10th &16th, 8-11am. Please contact Rachel Darvill (rachel@wildsight.ca) if you would like to participate in the 2016 Spring or Fall survey dates.