Friday, September 16, 2005

What happened to the North American Fall Migration Count??????

Is anybody out there still doing a fall count?

In Illinois, the Spring Bird Count is still pretty popular, but the fall count is virtually nonexistent.
Is anyone in Illinois doing the North American Migration Count this Fall? I have not heard anything about a "fall count" here in Illinois for several years.

I know that some states, including Florida, do have county coordinators and are attempting to hold their fall count this Saturday, September 17. I found some info on the web but it all seems to be local, I couldn't find any national group or organization that seemed to be in charge of things.

So, what's the deal?

UPDATE: The deal is, apparently, that there used to be some coordination through someone in Maryland (through the MOS?), but areas that are continuing the fall count are pretty much on their own. Some states seem to be pretty active (Alabama was one I noticed), and there are quite a few states (including California, Florida, and Maryland) that are making an effort as well.

Counts like this are, I think, exactly the kind of thing that readers of this site would be interested in. So I propose that we try to resurrect the fall count. Let's start on a small scale first: here in Illinois, everyone try to keep track of what they see this weekend, and just hold on to those results for right now.

I would envision that the IOS or some other group would be the umbrella organization for the count. Maybe it would be possible to use the system that is already in place for the Spring Count...use the same county compilers, etc.

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