Calling All Twitchers – 3 & 4 December

Posted on 26 November, 2011 by Connecting Country

For more than a decade, the Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club has been participating in the Annual Bird Day (also known as the BOCA Challenge Bird Count). On this day coordinated by Bird Observation and Conservation Australia, groups are encouraged to record as many bird species as possible, and their abundance, in areas across the whole of Australia. As well as being a fun day, it also records important information on the long-term changes in bird diversity across the landscape.

Chris Morris, organiser for the Castlemaine area bird surveys, highlights that there are competition rules to follow:
* All observations must be made within 40 km of the central point (in this case, central Castlemaine)
* For a bird to be recorded, it must either be (a) seen by at least 2 members of the team, or (b) heard calling by 3 members of the team.
* All observations must be made within a single day (which can be either on the Sat 3 Dec or Sun 4 Dec 2011).
* Each team must have at least one experienced birdwatcher.

Every year, Chris Morris organises a number of teams (with at least 3 people each) to survey different parts of the Castlemaine area. If you are interested in joining one of the existing teams, or perhaps forming a team yourself, please contact Chris Morris on either 0418-996-289 or cjs.morris@bigpond.com.

To see last year’s results from the Castlemaine area, click here.