When daylight has dwindled

to a precious few hours, when the sky is most likely gray and heavy with

rain or worse, when temperatures have sunk to new lows, more than 50,000

Americans decide it's time to... go birding?

And you can be part of this

natural-history-making enumeration.

Ah, yes. It's time for the

annual census known as the Christmas Bird Count, a project of the National

Audubon Society and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Begun in 1900

as an alternative to the Christmas Day "sport" of shooting down

as many birds as possible, the CBC has become a critical part of the U.S.

government's ecology-monitoring database.

As go the birds, so goes the

environment, researchers have known for decades. Birds are among the first

animals to be affected by threats like pollution and habitat destruction,

and the numbers compiled by generations of volunteers paint a picture

of change for better or for worse in the health of not only bird populations,

but of the environment all living things share.

The Peachtree City CBC, next

Saturday, Dec. 16, is one of about 1,800 separate 24-hour counts that

will take place throughout the Western Hemisphere in a two-and-a-half-week

period in late December and early January. Counters will cover a circle

15 miles in diameter, centered on Sharpsburg, documenting species and

counting individual birds.

This year's data will be entered

on-line at Cornell's Internet database, to add to records produced since

1900 and now available to the public. The lab's wealth of information

about birds, including bird-related Christmas gift ideas, may be found

at https://birds.cornell.edu .

For the first time, CBC coordinator

Brock Hutchins is seeking volunteers for the local count. Job changes

and health have reduced the number of participants here, he says, and

he would welcome experienced birders to the all-day effort.

That includes feeder-watchers,

persons who can give two or three hours during count day to observing

the birds that come and go within their own backyards.

Additionally, Hutchins says,

he'd like to hear from property owners who would allow enumerators onto

their land to count birds. Access to any property, including industrial,

would be helpful, but open fields, woodlands and wetlands are especially

good habitats.

There is a nominal fee if one

wishes one's name entered in Audubon and Cornell databases, but participation

in the bird count itself is free. The count is Saturday to learn more

about taking part, phone Hutchins soon at 770-461-5042 or e-mail [email protected].