Countdown to Bird Count

Starting tomorrow evening, we'll be counting turkeys and all the other birds we come across as we kick off the 24 hour Christmas Bird Count period for Gallon Jug/Chan Chich. We'll start out with a night bird count and then count dawn to dusk, the following day, the 31st.

To get an idea from CBCs past, the number of species counted during the 24 hour count period has ranged from 171 to 238. The number of individual birds has ranged from 1,718 to 4,772. These numbers have been somewhat influenced by number of participants (and thus territory covered) as well as weather where, for example, rain has been a factor.

The first table (below, left) provides a summary of the total numbers of species recorded for each year’s Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count. The second table (below, right) provides a summary of the total number of individual birds recorded for each year’s Gallon Jug Christmas Bird Count.

The image above is one of my favorite Ocellated Turkey photos, taken years ago when we worked in Caracol, in the Maya Mountains. Unfortunately, the turkey has been completely wiped out from Caracol due to hunting. Luckily, they are still numerous here on the Gallon Jug Estate.