This story was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio.
The in Huntington recently welcomed visitors for the . The event is a world-wide community science project where people record the birds they see in the wild over several days in February.
Erin Talmage is the museum鈥檚 executive director. She said the Great Backyard Bird Count is just one of many community science projects the museum promotes.
鈥淥ur focus is education,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really here to help people learn about community science, learn about the birds in their backyard, and learn about how they can share the data with other people.鈥�
To participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count, birders had to dedicate at least 15 minutes to counting the species they saw around them. Then they logged their findings in an app called .
By the end of the event, Talmage said, 鈥渨e end up with a little snapshot of the birds around the world.鈥�
Talmage invited visitors to sit with her at the museum鈥檚 designated birdwatching window.
鈥淪itting here, it鈥檚 hard to stop at 15 minutes,鈥� she said.
While the museum is considered a birding 鈥渉otspot鈥� on eBird, Talmage said people can birdwatch anywhere.
鈥淵ou can go down to Lake Champlain and see what kind of ducks you find,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd you don鈥檛 have to be in one place. We could go for a walk for 15 minutes and just record what we see.鈥�
The official Great Backyard Bird Count event only lasts four days, but birders can record the birds they see in eBird any time. 鈥淎ll the data is good data,鈥� Talmage said.
According to eBird, has the most birders per capita of any state in the U.S. so far this year. And while the data is important, Talmage said the act of birding offers something bigger.
鈥淧eople around the world have been working together to learn more about birds, hopefully to make better conservation decisions,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 so few things where we are working together with lots of people from different places, and eBird is one of them. It鈥檚 a really powerful tool, and it鈥檚 something we can all do.鈥�
This story comes from a collaboration between 开云体育 and the , a University of Vermont journalism internship. Production support by Kelsey Tolchin-Kupferer.
