Citizen Science - Great Backyard Bird Count

 Submitted by Steph Gardner

You might have noticed there are birds all over Sharon Forks Library (28 total, in case you’re counting!). We are starting a new series called Citizen Science during which we will highlight a new project that patrons (and people all over the country and in some cases the world!) can participate in. These are real science projects run by real scientists! Our first project is the Great Backyard Bird Count! The count takes place on President’s Day Weekend, February 12-15 and it’s easy and fun to participate. We have created bookmarks and a video (available on our website) to assist patrons in participating. We have also created a bird scavenger hunt on the children’s side, but anyone is welcome to participate. The prize is a piece of origami paper and directions to make a bird J On the weekend of the bird count (and probably a week or so following) we will have an interactive display on the rolling board for folks to share the birds they found! Patrons will also be encouraged to post on social media. We’re hoping this will lead to some interesting conversations and feeling of community. This is also world-wide project, so we thought it might be a great way that families who live in different places could have some long-distance fun by sharing where they looked for birds and which ones they found. Thank you for promoting (and hopefully participating in J) this program! Feel free to ask the staff involved in this program (Alicia, Lynne, Lacey, Arlene and Steph) for more information, we’re all pretty excited about it!

We will be highlighting Project Budburst in March.