House Finch by John Gatchet

Clallam County Birdathon and World Migratory Bird Day, May 14, 2022

by Bob Boekelheide

The second Saturday in May is World Migratory Bird Day, when OPAS traditionally holds its Clallam County Birdathon. Please get outside and count birds in Clallam County on May 14, along with helping to raise money for important OPAS projects.

No matter where you live or visit in Clallam County, please count birds on May 14. You can check out your favorite birding spots, go for walks on nearby trails, or simply tally birds in your yards, neighborhood, and feeders. Clallam County has an amazing diversity of bird habitats, along with the record number of species seen in one day in WA on this count in 2012.

On May 14, keep track of the species and numbers of birds you see, along with where you count, the distance you travel, and your time spent birding. This helps make comparisons between years, which is particularly important. To count at a feeder, please enter the high count of birds you see during the day; so, for example, if you see 8 House Finches at 8 a.m. and 5 House Finches at 11 a.m., list 8 House Finches as your count.

There is a Birdathon tally sheet available either in this Harlequin Happenings or at the OPAS website. After the count, email your scanned tally sheets to me at bboek@olympus.net. Or just type out the species and numbers in the body of your email. Or you can be old-fashioned and snail-mail the tally sheet to the address on the back of the tally sheet, but I prefer email.

Alternatively, you may enter your data using eBird on the day of the count, but it’s real important that if you do use eBird please also send me an email with the web-addresses (URLs) of your eBird lists. Otherwise, I might not find them.

Money raised during Birdathon helps support many OPAS necessities, from printing and internet costs, to insurance for meetings and field trips, to supporting conservation programs. You can also sponsor Birdathon with your pledge based on total count results.  Even better, get your own sponsors to support your tallies, or just send a generous donation when you receive your Birdathon letter.

Please email Bob Boekelheide to sign up to count, or simply do the count and send your tallies right away when finished. Our goal remains unchanged -- to produce a one-day snapshot of the birds of Clallam County on the second Saturday in May. Thank you!