In the morning, you look out the window, you see a bird. What kind of bird is it? What are its features? If you’ve ever been curious, there are ways to tell what a bird is, and a recent meet at the Land Titles Building in Yorkton taught people what they can do to recognize birds.
LeeAnn Latremouille has been travelling around Saskatchewan teaching people the basics of identifying birds. She focused on size, shape, behavior and colour, ending with a test that saw some eager young birders identify the birds right away.
She wasn’t doing this for fun, though she does find bird watching to be extremely fun. She also needs help. The Saskatchewan Breeding Bird Atlas needs to be filled, and it’s amateur bird watchers who help put it together and help track where birds are across the province.
“This relies really, really heavily on volunteer citizen scientists. Anybody can sign onto the project and contribute their sightings of birds that are nesting across the province. During this breeding season, that can be a bird in suitable habitat, pairs of birds, birds building nests, birds with recently hatched young and just nests in your yard.”
The Yorkton area has many gaps in the coverage, so she wants to see birdwatchers get out through the area and start spotting and reporting the birds they see. She said that even very common birds are important to keep track of, as they need to see where birds are moving and what is happening with populations. They’re repeated at 20 year intervals, and helpful at seeing what’s happening to bird populations.
The most eager spotters in the group were young kids, and Latremouille is excited to see younger people pick up the hobby and start birding. She notes that it’s the first step in conservation, because you won’t protect what you don’t care about.
“They’re like sponges, they really soak it up... It really is a spot the difference game, and kids really pick it up.”
You can help with the Sask Breeding Bird Atlas at http://sk.birdatlas.ca. Latremouille has one more thing to add.
“Birds are cool!”
