By Guest Blogger Dudley Carlson
Did you participate in the Christmas Bird Count? How many kids were along on your count? Did you count at night or by day, outdoors or from a window? The history of this important event is introduced, in simple picture-book format, in Counting Birds by Heidi Stemple. “Frank Chapman loved birds,” she says, and describes how he worried about the tradition of …
Christmas Day bird hunts and worked to redirect them toward conservation. At the end of this engaging book, Stemple gives more detail about Chapman, tells how to a count or participate in other Citizen Science projects (such as the Great Backyard Bird Count, coming in February). She reveals that her own Christmas counting is always post-midnight owling, to which she was introduced by her father. She herself is the little girl in the Caldecott Medal-winning book Owl Moon, written by her mother, Jane Yolen.
These cold winter nights, when owls are calling to find mates and pair up before nesting season, are the perfect time to introduce young children to owling. I can’t think of a better way to begin than by reading Owl Moon together, followed by Counting Birds. Then get ready to sit with your kids by a window in February, or get them out in the parks to join the Great Backyard Bird Count, and show them how many others have also submitted numbers, nationally and right here in our California backyards.
SFBBO member Dudley Carlson, a biologist’s daughter, grew up in a family of birders and was Manager of Youth Services at Princeton (NJ) Public Library for 25 years. She believes that if children enjoy learning about birds and understand how important they are to our environment, then birds, nature and people will have a better chance at a healthy future.
SFBBO member Dudley Carlson, a biologist’s daughter, grew up in a family of birders and was Manager of Youth Services at Princeton (NJ) Public Library for 25 years. She believes that if children enjoy learning about birds and understand how important they are to our environment, then birds, nature and people will have a better chance at a healthy future.