A timely, well written and informative article on Virginia's CBCs, past
and present, is now available on the Virginia eBird web page. This is
co-authored by Teta Kain, Kurt Gaskill and Gerco Hoogeweg and begins as
follows:
More than 1000 people are expected to participate in Virginia during the
108th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) scheduled to place between December 14,
2007 and January, 4, 2008. On average, 200 to 218 species of birds are
found on the 48 CBCs conducted around the state each year. More than 320
species have been recorded over the 103-year history of counts in
Virginia.
The first Virginia CBC was conducted in Accotink, Fairfax County in 1904
when a local doctor counted 51 individuals of six different species
(Northern Bobwhite, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Eastern Bluebird,
Dark-eyed Junco, and Song Sparrow) from... (read the full article at
http://ebird.org/content/va/index.html
This article also includes information of an interactive mapping feature
for all of this year's CBCs linked to the following website
http://portal.waterborne-env.com/website/cbc ;
Thank you Teta, Kurt and Gerco for a job well done!
John Spahr
Staunton