The Christmas Bird Count is the largest and oldest citizen science project in the world, with tens of thousands of volunteers help count local bird populations from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5. Locally, Tahoe Institute for Natural Science co-founder Will Richardson has coordinated event since 2004, but Tahoe data goes back to 1975.This year’s South Lake Tahoe Christmas Bird Count has been scheduled for Dec. 15 with changes to how this year’s count will be conducted. Volunteers may help with counts in self-selected pods or help with conducting counts on their own in their own backyard. Visit the website for details and to volunteer.
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the Institute. Since 2010, the organization has engaged with more than 56,000 students through in-school natural history programs, field trips and nature camps, hosting presentations and conducting biological research. In fact, TINS researchers have banded more than 6,500 birds as part of local, regional and world-wide migration studies. TINS has also launched a website. | tinsweb.org
