“Buffleheads! I love buffleheads,” says Sheryl Nadeau. “They are a wonderful duck species, and very easy to identify with that big patch on their heads.”
Nadeau, her delighted enthusiasm for birds evident as she talks, is a longtime docent at Shollenberger Park, and the coordinator of the 2020 Christmas Bird Count for Kids. She is listing a few of the bird species kids will see during this year’s bird count.
That’s when buffleheads are first mentioned.
“Buffleheads are a very cute duck, and we have quite a few of them right now, though we won’t see so many in the spring, because they like to north,” Nadeau says. “But Petaluma is one of the area they use as their winter retreat because we’re warm enough to make them happy, and they have enough food here.”
Ducks, with “buffles” on their heads and otherwise, are just one of many feathered friends waiting to be spotted and spied during the annual bird-counting event, Saturday, Jan. 4, from 9 a.m. to noon beginning at Shollenberger Park. The event is sponsored by the Petalumam Wetlands Alliance, a local nonprofit in existence for 15 years. From the beginning, PWA has focused its efforts on public education around the Wetlands. The Christmas Bird Count, now in its 11th year, is modeled on similar events held around the country. Those include Marin Audubon’s annual count in Point Reyes. But unlike most other bird count activities, the Petaluma event is constructed for the participation of children, and is less about achieving actual scientific bird population statistics than it is designed to introduce kids to the wonder of the natural world.
“This is not a real scientific bird count, by any means,” says Nadeau. “It’s all about getting the kids outdoors, because everyone seems to be going toward indoor activities, and computers and videogames. So we’re trying to educate kids in how much fun they can have in their own backyards. The Wetlands are, in a sense, all of our backyard, so it just makes sense to try and share that with kids, to offer them a fun opportunity to learn and experience this very special resource we have.”
Participating kids, age 6 to 12, will be paired up with experienced birders and one assistant birder, who will take about six junior birders, and their parents, to assigned areas around Shollenberger Park and the Ellis Creek Water Treatment Facility. Binoculars will be available for those who do not have their own.
“The walks will last about an hour-and-a-half to two hours, during which they will learn how to identify birds, talk about what they see and how many of those birds they can find,” says Nadeau. “We will have counting sheets with the names of the birds on them, so they can use those to learn what kinds of birds are out there.”
Afterwards, all groups will return to a gathering area at Shollenberger, where all participants will share a pizza lunch at the edge of the wetlands. The pizzas are courtesy of local Elks Lodge #901.
“That’s when we’ll rehash what everyone has seen,” she says, “talking about how many bird varieties we’ve counted, and anything else exciting or interesting they experienced.”
According to Nadeau, some of the kids have, over the years, become fairly experience birders themselves, returning Christmas after Christmas.
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December 31, 2019 at 07:33AM
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Annual Petaluma bird count brings kids into contact with nature - Petaluma Argus Courier
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