The Woodland Dunes Nature Center and Preserve in Two Rivers conducted its’ annual Christmas Bird Count on Monday.
Executive Director Jim Knickelbine tells Seehafer News, “Basically a team from the nature center goes out and covers as much of the preserve as we can and try to count every bird and all the different species that we see.”
Knickelbine explains they found 22-species altogether in a 15-mile in diameter circle, centered near Two Rivers.
He said that the highlights included “5 bald eagles, a common raven which is unusual this far south in Wisconsin and 3 northern harriers, a particular kind of hawk, which uses big grassland, and are still in the process of migrating right now.”
He stated it gives you a snapshot every year of what birds are present during this time and that changes quite a bit.
Different birds come down from Canada farther south than some years. Also, it gives you general population trends for a lot of species.
The Christmas Bird Count has been done at the nature center every year since its’ opening in the early 1970’s.
Knickelbine said there are 3 more counts that occur in Manitowoc County, “making us one of the few in the state where there are 4 different bird counts in the same calendar year.”
