Woodland Nature Station at LBL–The 75th annual Land Between the Lakes Christmas Bird Count was held at the Woodland Nature Station recently. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is our nation’s longest running (since 1900) community science project where birders spend a day counting birds to collect data about bird populations in North and South America.
The first Christmas Bird Count in what is now Land Between the Lakes took place in 1950 and was centered around the Kentucky Woodlands National Wildlife Refuge. This was just a few years after the creation of Kentucky Lake, and our bird community was very different back then. For example, we only recorded 4 species of waterfowl in 1950. This year, they recorded 15.
For this year’s count, we saw 77 species and 15,308 individual birds (over 5,000 of these were Red-winged Blackbirds). Species highlights include migrating Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes, Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, and Forster’s Tern. They saw 38 Bald Eagles.
Are you a birder? Consider getting involved in our count next year or another count near you! Some counts occur as late as January 5th. See more info here – https://www.audubon.org/…/chr…/join-christmas-bird-count