This New Year’s Eve, dozens of bird enthusiasts from the Oliver-Osoyoos area will be spending their day counting birds.

Dec. 31 is the chosen day for the 38th annual Christmas Bird Count in this area, which is run by the Oliver-Osoyoos Naturalist Club.

It’s all part of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count that takes place in more than 2,500 locations across the Western Hemisphere and mobilizes more than 72,000 volunteer bird counters.

The counts take place on different days between mid-December and early January with each location’s count covering a circle with a diameter of 15 miles (24 km).

Volunteers break up into small parties and follow assigned routes, which change little from year to year. They count every bird they see and record its species.

This census tracks the health of bird populations at a scale that scientists could never accomplish alone, said Doug Brown, who organizes the Oliver-Osoyoos count.

Many of the volunteers are up before dawn to begin the count. Some keep an eye on bird feeders.

Over the years, the Oliver-Osoyoos count has recorded nearly 590,000 birds of 169 different species, making the local count one of the top counts in all of Canada, said Brown.

The local count extends from the north edge of Oliver to Boundary Point in Washington State and from Anarchist Mountain to the west end of the Richter Pass.

The Audubon counts began in 1900 when Dr. Frank Chapman, founder of Bird-Lore (which evolved into Audubon magazine) suggested an alternative to the holiday “side hunt,” in which teams competed to see who could shoot the most small game, including birds.

Chapman proposed that people count birds instead.

To date, more than 200 peer-reviewed articles have resulted from analysis of Christmas Bird Count data, Brown said.

This has resulted in a better understanding of how birds are responding to changing climate, enabling Audubon scientists to discover that 314 species of North American birds are threatened by global warming.

If you are interested in helping with the local count, either as a full participant or as a feeder watcher, contact Doug Brown at [email protected].

Those who can’t participate on the Dec. 31 date are welcome to take part in other nearby counts in areas such as Bridesville, Vaseux Lake or Cawston.

Birders of all ages are welcome to contribute.

By Richard McGuire