Just as surely

as Santa Claus migrates from the North Pole to warmer climes each year,

thousands of brave men and women will bundle up and leave their warm homes

in the pre-dawn darkness ­ to count birds.

In Coweta

and Fayette counties, the Christmas Bird Count will take place this year

on Saturday, Dec. 21. Coordinator Brock Hutchins says his greatest need

is for landowners ­ especially those with large tracts of land and

a variety of habitats (wetlands, woods, open fields) ­ to permit

counters to use their land.

The circle,

15 miles in diameter, comprises about 177 square miles, with its center

in Sharpsburg.

Hutchins also

said experienced birders are welcome, but cautions that this is not an

event for novices. Feeder watchers are also welcome.

The CBC is

now in its 103rd year, and is an annual project of the National Audubon

Society. This year, organizers expect more than 55,000 volunteers from

all 50 states, every Canadian province, parts of Central and South America,

Bermuda, the West Indies, and Pacific islands to count and record every

individual bird and bird species seen in a specified area. Last year,

about 52 million individual birds were counted by members of 1,936 groups.

Each group is assigned a circle 15 miles in diameter to prevent overlap.

Not bad for

a project that began on Christmas Day 1900, with 27 conservationists in

25 localities. It was a sort of protest against the "side hunt,"

a holiday tradition in which teams competed to see who could shoot the

most birds and small mammals on Christmas.

The annual

census provides invaluable information about the health of birds, which

is indicative of the health of the environment. The raw data of a single

site may appear insignificant, but combined with the thousands of counts

that have taken place over the decades, help ornithologists track birds

whose wintering patterns have changed or whose habitat has been damaged.

To see where

the birds are, or how their numbers have increased or decreased, see the

Audubon Society's Web site at HtmlResAnchor www.audubon.org/bird/cbc.

This year results will be entered on-line and appear in near real-time.

Another good source of information is at HtmlResAnchor https://www.birdsource.org/.

For more information,

to sign up, or to offer the use of property, contact Hutchins at 770-461-5042

or at [email protected] .