12 The Leduc Rep • Friday, December 9, 2016
Christmas Bird Count BGHF struggling to sell lottery tickets
beginning to spot
trends
Rep Staff
Mark Wierzbicki
[email protected]
The Leduc Christmas Bird Count is about to celebrate its fifth anniversary, and along with the occasion, will potentially at last come some
reliable data on the status of the area’s avian populations.
Termed a “citizen’s science project,” Christmas bird counts are
held across the country and rely entirely on volunteers and hobbyists
to spread out among each individual count area to record kinds and
numbers of bird species. This year’s count will be held Sunday, Dec.
18, organized by the Leduc Environmental Advisory Board (LEAB), and
Andrew Tait, the count founder and compiler and a local environmental advocate, says with that amount of data under their belts, they may
soon be able to make confident pronouncements about how local bird
populations are faring.
“We should be able to make a little more authoritative determination
of the trends,” Tait said.
The last fours years have given count organizers a provisional look at
where specific species of birds are trending.
Of 15 species, four have seen their numbers trending upwards in the
counts, five have been stable and six have trended downwards. The
most common cause for those results – which are still only preliminary
– is “urbanization,” an explanation which is applied to all trend directions, whether up, down or stable.
“We’re seeing with urbanization that some species are decreasing,
and the ones increasing are species that can thrive within the built up
communities. Things like magpies crows and ravens can adapt very
well to human environments,” Tait said. “What we’re seeing is some
species that do very well in the wild but also thrive in built up areas are
absolutely increasers, but the ones that really do need natural habitats
are decreasers, and the ones that are stable are able to deal with the
parks and the boulevards and have enough habitat there that they’re
not that affected.”
American tree sparrow, cedar waxwing, evening grosbeak, pine grosbeak, sharp-tailed grouse and snowy owl were all species with populations pegged, preliminarily, as on the downward trend, while the
American crow, black-billed magpie, blue jay and common raven are
trending upwards. The clack-capped chickadee, Bohemian waxwing,
downy woodpecker, house sparrow and ruffed grouse are provisionally
pegged as having stable populations.
The 2015 count spotted 30 different species and 677 individual specimens in total. More counters are always needed. Tait estimated there’s
usually only about eight counters participating in the local count out in
the county, with a much larger number of counters withing the City of
Leduc itself.
Tait expects that, once results for the 2016 Christmas Bird Count and
the upcoming Spring Bird Count are in, they’ll be able to make much
more declarative announcements about the health of local populations.
Local organizers also help with setting up other counts in the region,
including around Pigeon Lake and in Wetaskiwin County.
Tally sheets and guidelines are available through leduc.ca/christmas-bird-count-2016 for anyone interested in taking part.
Ticket sales for the Black Gold Health Foundation's
(BGHF) Wings & Wheels Lottery are still slow despite
the upcoming deadline.
Both the BGHF and the Wetaskiwin Health Foundation will benefit from the proceeds of this campaign.
Locally the funds will go to the CT scanner at Leduc
Community Hospital where nearly $400,000 of $1.25
million has been raised so far.
BGHF has a little over three years left to fundraise for
the scanner. However, the lottery has been impacted
by the slow economy, which is why BGHF is putting
out the call to encourage purchases.
“Like the more well known hospital supporting lotteries, Wings & Wheels Lottery is also experiencing the
effects of the economic down turn,” said BGHF executive director Lorraine Popik.
“This is a feel good purchase in more ways than one.
You can help out your local hospital and possibly be a
winner too.”
The prizes for the lottery include an Alaskan cruise,
trips to Iceland, England, Riviera Maya or Honolulu,
and three different vehicles.
Tickets are $10 for one, $20 for three and $100 for 20,
and are available in different locations in Leduc and
Leduc County including the Leduc Community Hospital gift shop.
The deadline to purchase tickets is Dec. 16. The draw
is Dec. 22.
For more information visit www.blackgoldhealthfoundation.com.
File Photo
Tickets for the Wings & Wheels Lottery are still available
until Dec. 16.