Golden fingers

Needed a splash of warm colour this morning. It's the Calgary Christmas Bird Count next Sunday, and today it's the scouting trip for it. It's supposed to be cloudy all day and it's already snowing, so probably won't be a day for any photos.

Later: it has been snowing all day today. Two groups of us spent 4+ hours walking for the scouting of next Sunday's Calgary Bird Count. Very overcast, so it was pretty much useless as far as photos are concerned, but really quite pleasant. Not sure yet exactly how many species my group saw - around 15, which wasn't too bad. These included a Bald Eagle, Merlin, Red Crossbill, Redpolls, one Wood Duck, and all the usual Chickadees, Nuthatches, Mallards, Canada Geese, etc..

"The first count, in 1900, was started as a revolt to the traditional "Side Hunt" held on Boxing Day, wherein groups of gunners went afield to shoot and kill as much wildlife as possible. Presumably the team that killed the most species was declared the winner. Already by that time the Labrador Duck, Great Auk, Heath Hen, Passenger Pigeon and Carolina Parakeet were extinct or so reduced in numbers in the wild that they were close to it. As a result, in many ways, we have all been the losers. Fortunately the idea of the CBC has caught on and the Side Hunt became so repugnant that it disappeared.

Today, there are over 2000 CBCs conducted in USA, Canada, West Indies, Mexico, Central and increasingly South America, with thousands of participants. The information so garnered in this voluntary citizen-science project is invaluable for many scientific studies."