Help with the Spring Bird Count! Contact Jim Corliss at 
jcorliss240@cox.net
Great Backyard Bird Count
Owl Prowl at New Quarter Park, Saturday, Jan 20
WBC and NQP are having an Owl Prowl Saturday, January 20 at 6pm at New Quarter Park, weather permitting. We will meet in the parking lot at the front gate of the park. Bring flashlights if you have them. We will walk the paved trail into the park listening for owl calls and any other night critters we may hear or possibly see!
New Year’s Day Bird and Birder Show at New Quarter Park
Please join birding enthusiasts Monday, January 1, 2024, at New Quarter Park at the Fire Circle for the “New Year’s Day Bird and Birder Show.” The 2024 gathering will be the 18th “almost-annual” event.
We’ll convene at the Fire Circle between 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. If it’s a chilly day, the park may have a fire going in the fire circle. Relax and visit with new and old friends on the benches or venture out around the park to find our wintering birds. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (photo above taken a few years ago at NQP) should end up on our list for the park this day!
The address for New Quarter Park is 1000 Lakeshead Drive, Williamsburg. You can find directions to the park on its website at https://www.yorkcounty.gov/1816/New-Quarter-Park. Signage and the Park brochure on the website show the path from the parking lot to the Fire Circle.
Come as you are! Bring visiting family, friends, and children; come early, stay late, or just drop by. Remember, every bird is a year bird on New Year’s Day! I look forward to welcoming you to celebrate the start of 2024.
Christmas Bird Count
On Sunday December 17 the WBC will conduct our annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in the Williamsburg area. The National Audubon Society has administered the CBC for 124 years, and 2023 will mark the 47th year of conducting the count in Williamsburg. Our Williamsburg count area is defined by a circle that is 15 miles in diameter and centered at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center.
This location is advantageous because the circle encompasses a wide variety of habitats and includes birding hot spots such as Jamestown Island, Hog Island, New Quarter Park, Cheatham Annex, and portions of Gloucester along the York River. The Christmas Bird Count is the longest running citizen science project in the United States. More information regarding its history and benefits to conservation can be found online at
https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count
The Christmas Bird Count is not only an important citizen science project. It’s fun to participate, and the CBC is also a volunteer opportunity for those of us who are Virginia Master Naturalists. Please consider participating this year—we especially need more feeder watchers to tally birds in neighborhood areas
that aren’t covered by the field teams. Participating as a feeder watcher follows a protocol very similar to Project Feederwatch administered by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. You can observe multiple times throughout the day and for as long as you like each time. Even just 30 minutes of data is valuable.
It’s also possible to venture out beyond your backyard and tally birds around your neighborhood as long as we keep track of who is covering specific areas to avoid overlap. Your count results will be compiled with all of the data collected on the count day and submitted into the CBC database maintained by the National Audubon Society. We’re hoping for a lot of participation this year, so please don’t hesitate to contact me at jcorliss240@cox.net with questions about how to be a part of this year’s count!