It's for the birds, and the kids
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Keeping count: Clipboard on her knee, a young citizen scientist checks a list of birds she might see Saturday at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Binocular Boot Camp: A Cub Scout looks out the window at Five Rivers on Saturday morning to learn about identifying and counting birds.
NEW SCOTLAND — Kids here got a chance on Saturday to do what adults across the Americas have been doing for 115 years — going afield in the winter for the annual Christmas Bird Count.
The Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, located in the towns of Bethlehem and New Scotland and owned by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, hosted the first-ever Holiday Bird Count for Kids. Seventy-one different species have been found at Five Rivers.
The kids on Saturday attended Binocular Boot Camp, where they gazed from inside the warmth of the center to identify birds that included the black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, and white-throated sparrow. Bird identification books were close at hand as were clipboards with check lists of each of the different kinds of birds likely to be spotted.
Then it was time to bundle up against the cold, buckle boots against the snow, and head for the outdoors. Field parties of newly trained bird watchers then combed assigned territories, returning to compile sightings, swap stories, and warm up with hot cocoa.
