Welcome back to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Geoff

Volunteers Start Annual U

This is TALK OF THE NATION: SCIENCE FRIDAY. I’m Ira Flatow.

Every year cheap Canada Goose at this time for more than a century, the National Audubon canada goose uk shop Society has been asking volunteers just like you and me to join its Christmas Bird Count. Now Canada Goose Jackets this year’s Christmas Bird Count continues through January 5th, and all you have to do is count all the birds you spot in a certain area during a single 24 hour period.

Canada Goose Parka Well, we wanted to hear which unusual birds were spotted in our area here in the New York City area, so we called Audubon’s Rare Bird Alert here in New canada goose coats on sale York, and this is what they told us.

Canada Goose Outlet Unidentified Man (Audubon’s Rare Bird Alert): Among the Brooklyn counts, 122 species last Saturday, where a Eurasian Wigeon, Red necked Grebe, Rough legged Hawk, barn owl, Pine Warbler, and two Yellow breasted Chats.

buy canada goose www.canadagooseoutletmall.com jacket FLATOW: Wow, all that here right here in New York City. So if you joined the Christmas Bird Count, you could have fun at seeing more birds buy canada goose jacket and all kinds of birds, plus the total number of birds, the number of species you report. And they help the Audubon Society track how birds in North America and parts of Latin America Canada Goose Online are faring. Wow, that sounds like a canada goose clearance whole lot of birds, and some species, like raptors and doves, are doing well in many places. But the fact is, in general birds are in trouble. The wild weather we’ve been having here, you know, uk canada goose outlet in the past few years has been very hard on them. Just look at this winter’s heavy snow and storms out West in Colorado, places like that. How do the birds survive something like that?

canadian goose jacket Geoff LeBaron is the director of the Christmas Bird Count. He joins us on SCIENCE FRIDAY every year to talk about the results of last year’s bird count. Plus he’s been on three bird counts in Central Massachusetts so far this year alone, and he’s going to tell us what he’s seen in this surprisingly warm weather.

Geoff joins canada goose store us today by phone from Canada Goose online his home canada goose coats in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. Welcome back to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Geoff.

Mr. GEOFF LEBARON (Director, Christmas Bird Count): Thank you https://www.canadagooseoutletmall.com very much, Ira. It’s a pleasure to be here again.

FLATOW: Thank you. Last year the Christmas Bird Count found that the mass of hurricanes of 2005 had been tough on the birds, especially canada goose factory sale in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.

canada goose coats Dr. canadian goose jacket Peter Yaukey is a biographer who is associate professor and chair of the Geography department at the University of New Orleans. And he has been studying resident birds in New Orleans since 1994, and he has signed up for this Christmas Bird Count, too. And he’s been looking at how birds Canada Goose Parka in New Orleans are doing a year after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

canada goose coats on sale Dr. Yaukey, welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.

canada goose clearance Dr. PETER YAUKEY (University of New Orleans): Thank you, Ira. It’s great to be with you.

FLATOW: Before we start talking to both of you, I’m going to give our listeners a chance to spot a bird over the radio. You don’t have to look at your radio. You can just listen to your radio.

buy canada goose jacket cheap We’re going to play two birdcalls. And you can uk canada goose call us at 1 800 989 8255, 1 800 989 TALK canada goose black friday sale and tell us Canada Goose Coats On Sale which birds you think they are. Two birds. Here we go. Here’s a clue. If you spot this bird on your Christmas Bird Count, you’re going to go down in ornithological history.

Canada Goose sale FLATOW: Wow, that’s a tough bird to pick up. Well, let’s give you an easier one. Here’s a Christmas Bird Count that they this bird is doing very, very well, even in New Orleans.

canada goose store (Soundbite of second birdcall)

FLATOW: Even I know that one because I’ve seen them outside in my bird feeder. And actually they live they actually take the seeds off the ground, not from the feeder themselves.

Give us a call with your guess. Our number is 1 800 989 8255. You don’t win anything.

FLATOW: That’s the bad news. You just get to tell us on the radio what you think those birds are.

canada goose Let me turn to my guests. Geoff, how can you give us a thumbnail sketch on how the count is going this year?

Canada Goose online Mr. LEBARON: Well, this year here in the Northeast, anyway, the as you mentioned, I’ve been Canada Goose sale on three counts so far this year, and I would have to say the weather is what I would call absurdly mild here during the count period. I know that’s quite cheap canada goose uk different, as you mentioned, when you get out into the, you know, certainly the Rockies and the West Coast. They’re getting hammered with storms and snowstorms and a lot of rain in the South, so it’s, you know, sort of hit or miss what the weather’s like. But up here in the Northeast, it’s been pretty ridiculously mild.

I’ve had Canada Goose Outlet flying sulfur butterflies on one of my Christmas Counts. I had a basking painted canada goose turtle, singing peepers, and I even had six American woodcocks in display flight last Saturday down in Rhode Island.

canada goose black friday sale Mr. LEBARON: So it’s not your typical kind of brutal, windy Christmas Count season that we expect up here. It

canada goose deals FLATOW: No, go ahead finish because I was just going to ask what effect does warm weather have on the normal existence of the birds?

Mr. LEBARON: Well, it effects as much as anything it sort of canada goose clearance sale effects our ability to detect them. There’s a lot of open water. Actually, an awful lot of fresh water has yet to be frozen, even up into Eastern Canada. So many species aren’t concentrated into the areas where we usually anticipate finding them on Christmas Bird Counts. And also they’re just out more dispersed, and some species, like robins and things like that, haven’t had to move as far south as usual.

cheap Canada Goose We actually did have a pretty strong cold snap earlier in the fall, so canada goose uk black friday some of the lingering species kind of canada goose uk outlet got hastened on their way. And we didn’t have anything like the major fall weather events that we had last year that lead up to all the bizarre stuff that was left lingering across the continent, really, on buy canada goose jacket cheap Christmas Counts then with the sort of hurricane events.

Canada Goose Jackets So it’s sort of a it actually the mild weather can actually be to the benefit of the birds, but sometimes to the detriment of the counters because we just can’t find them because they’re not as concentrated as they usually are.