Local club participates in world-wide Christmas bird count

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – Christmas is all about traditions. Some families like to build gingerbread houses, and some families like to huddle around the fireplace to watch Christmas movies. But for bird enthusiasts around the globe, their Christmas tradition is something you might not have heard of but it makes a big impact on the world around us.

Barbara Morris and Jeanie Pousson, members of the Gulf Coast Bird Club, are spending their holiday participating in the Audubon Christmas bird count, the longest-running citizen science survey in the world. Once they spot a bird, they jot it down in their notebook and input their findings into a database that is then sent to the National Audubon Society.

“It tells them migration patterns, if they are changing, if there are more or fewer birds in an area, pollution, both by citizens both by citizen and industry, destruction of habitat,” says Pousson.

The first Christmas bird count took place in 1900 when bird experts, proposed counting birds on Christmas instead of killing them. Since then, the counts have been held every winter around the globe.

For Pousson, it was fifteen years ago when she went on her first bird count, and she says that her experience made her fall in love with birding.

Pousson says, “It was so amazing to see all these beautiful birds of different colors, that without binoculars, look black in the silhouette of the sun.”

And for Morris, it was hearing the sounds of birds while drinking her mourning coffee.

“So once I can hear this sound I want to know what I’m hearing, and then of course in your backyard, you will find your cardinals and your bluejays and your mockingbirds at my house,” says Morris. “Birding is a great hobby and you can start right in your own backyard.”

For those interested in joining the Gulf Coast Bird Club click here.

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