NORWICH — Birders love a challenge, and a good one is shaping up in Norwich right now. It’s called the Norwich 2019 Year of the Bird, and it’s a quest to document 175 bird species in town over the course of the calendar year.
Expert and novice birders alike are welcome to participate in the program, which is being coordinated by Chris Rimmer, executive director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.
You don’t have to be a Norwich resident.
“You just have to see the bird within town lines,” Rimmer said.
Rimmer admitted the goal of sighting 175 species is both arbitrary and “a bit of a stretch.” But 385 bird species have been documented in the state of Vermont, according to the website Vermont eBird, so it’s not impossible.
As might be expected, the bird tally has gotten off to a slow start.
“It’s a quiet time of year,” Rimmer said. “The birds that are here now, they’re the ones that are here with us for the winter. When spring unfolds, the floodgates will open.”
As of mid-February, Norwich birders had tallied 40 species, including the black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, hairy woodpecker, house sparrow and American crow — the usual suspects.
A few surprising birds also have been spotted around town. Redpolls, pine grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks and Bohemian waxwings have appeared en masse due to an irruption, or invasion, of species that ordinarily would spend the winter in Canada.
“They’re driven by food supplies,” Rimmer said. “When supplies are low, many of the birds that would normally stay up north come south. They have these cycles that are quite unpredictable.”
According to Rimmer, the hungry visitors have been observed feasting on crabapples at Fogg’s Hardware & Building Supply and elsewhere in Norwich.
Participants in Norwich 2019 Year of the Bird are asked to use eBird, the free online checklist program, to keep track of their sightings.
“By putting (the results) online, they have a lot more value for science than they would just scribbled in a notebook,” Rimmer explained. “Fifty years from now, these data will be important.”
Bird populations fluctuate due to a variety of causes that aren’t always easy to pinpoint. Some species have dwindled in this area over the past several years, while others have increased. Climate change, food scarcity and habitat disruption may all be factors, Rimmer said, but “it’s complex to talk about bird populations, particularly about ones that migrate.”
“That’s why eBird is such a wonderful tool. It’s not going to provide all the answers, but it will document what’s happening.”
After spring arrives and bird sightings in the area pick up, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies plans to offer workshops on how to use eBird, birdwatching walks and other activities.
For more information about Vermont eBird, visit ebird.org/vt/home. To learn how to join the Norwich 2019 Year of the Bird program, visit vtecostudies.org.