Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Anyone can be part of the Great Backyard Bird Count! It’s easy. Just watch and count birds in your backyard or on trail for at least 15 minutes, then report what you saw at www.birdcount.org.
Come to Thorn Creek Nature Center’s GBBC open house, Saturday, February 16 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. for everything you need to know about bird watching. We can help with basic bird identifications – and tricky ones, too. Do you need tips on how to tell our local woodpeckers apart? Our birding volunteers will give you practical help including local bird checklists.
Learn how to choose and use binoculars. Find out which birds prefer which types of bird feed. Inspect various types of bird feeders to decide which type is best for your yard. Make a pine cone suet feeder to take home for your backyard birds.
Young birders can enjoy games bird games and crafts and coloring.
At noon a naturalist will guide a Nature Hike through the late winter woods. Tally the birds seen at the nature center bird feeders and on trail to report for the GBBC.
Thorn Creek’s GBBC will also feature Thorn Creek Audubon Society’s displays on birds and the local organization.
Birders of all levels and ages are welcome.
Each year the Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology host the Great Backyard Bird Count in mid-February. All across America and Canada people will watch and count birds at their backyard bird feeders February 15 through 18, with the results providing a snapshot of the whereabouts of more than 600 bird species. “When thousands of people all tell us what they’re seeing, we can detect patterns in how birds are faring from year to year,” said Janis Dickinson, director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Thorn Creek Nature Preserve is located at 247 Monee Road, Park Forest.
For more information, please call 708-747-6320 or email [email protected].
