May 5, 2014 2 min read

The migrating birds that were seen and heard during the Enlow Fork Wildflower Walk April 27 were recorded by a flock of avid bird-watchers from a number of local and regional clubs, including the Ralph K. Bell Bird Club of Greene County.

Unfortunately, this Saturday it will be mostly those relatively few local club members who will be out in diminished force across the county, counting nesting robins, warblers, ducks, solitary sandpipers and a host of other species for the Audubon Society Spring Migration Count.

“We are in desperate need of bird counters for Saturday,” club president Marjorie Howard said. “Any bird heard or seen from midnight to midnight can be counted. If you could at least count in your yard or on your road, it would help us greatly.”

This long-running annual count is held on the second Saturday in May at the height of spring migration. In this region, there are well over 130 species to be found, depending on the weather and the number of volunteers who are willing to search them out at their backyard bird feeders, along roads, forests and waterways. The count lasts for 24 hours, starting a minute after midnight Saturday morning.

Data submitted is included in a hemispheric database that charts the status and population trends of resident and neotropical migratory species.

“Please let us know if you plan to count or if you are available to ride with someone or if you have count numbers to send us. Email Kathy Kern at n3xsj@windstream.net,” Howard said.