If you haven’t heard, Saturday is the Big Day. Not just any big day. it’s the Global Big Day.
If you haven’t heard of it, Cornell Labs celebrates World Migratory Bird Day by asking people to go look for birds. You make a note of what birds and how many of each you see, and report your observations online. All those reports are tallied up and help give researchers an idea of what types of birds are out there and where they are.
Last year, there were more than 50,000 people from 175 different countries that took part, which was a record. Hopefully, they get more this year.
And the great part? You don’t have to leave your own county. You don’t have to leave your own yard. You don’t have to leave your own house. Just look out the window for a few minutes, make notes on the birds, find a computer and report it. You can do it for the entire day. Or you can do it for five or ten minutes. It’s up to you.
I took part last year. If you remember, we were in the middle of the first big lockdown last year. I had started a back yard bird list, just keeping track of things I was seeing in my yard. It gave me the chance to feel like I was doing something, reporting birds to Cornell University. Almost made me want to buy myself a lab coat and say, “I’m a scientist.” Almost.
But it was fun and gave me something to do for a few minutes, so I hope to take part again tomorrow. It only takes a few minutes to register and gives you access to lots of bird information from around the world and around this area, which is kind of cool.
Just Google Global Big Day and sign up.
