It's Christmas Bird Count time!

The 2018 Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count will be held on Saturday, December 15, with some birds being counted during "count week" -- three days before and three days after the actual count date. Both feeder watchers and walking/driving birders are once again needed for this year's count.

When the counting day work is complete, participants will gather at Voyageur Brewing Company to compile results. For more information, contact organizer Jeremy Ridlbauer at 218-370-0733 or email [email protected]. 

There is a decades old Christmas Bird Count in Cook County, as well as across the state. The first known Minnesota Christmas Bird Counts were conducted on Christmas Day 1905 in Minneapolis and Red Wing. During those last 109 years, the Christmas Bird Count has been conducted uninterrupted in the state and has grown to include almost 70 census circles and involved more than 28,000 participants. Each year more than 1,000 participants canvass the state to conduct the survey.

How does someone become a counter? WTIP volunteer talks to local Bird Count organizer Jeremy Ridlbauer to learn just that.