In late December and early January, birders fanned out across the state as part of the annual Christmas Bird Count.
Delaware Ornithological Society members will gather at the Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin to get the final numbers from the six bird counts they manage.
While the final numbers are still being crunched, DOS President Joe Francis says the preliminary data he’s seen is encouraging.
“The counts I've seen so far have been around average, both in terms of the number of species and the distribution," Francis said. "That's not a bad thing. The fact that we've been worried about the impact of drought, the impact of avian flu.”
He adds it appears the populations of wading birds may be down however, due to some of the pools they use to find food being dried up
“So we are seeing the impact of weather changes, climate changes," he said. "But I'd like to say also that bird populations are resilient. You know, if we are able to preserve coastal habitat, they will find a way to make a living.”
During counts. birders braved seasonable and unseasonable weather.
“We had weather that ranged from average for the season - those were the early counts in December - and then right after New Year's there were two counts, and those were pretty cold," Francis said.
Wednesday’s meeting of the Delaware Ornithological Society is open to the public. It starts at 7:00 p.m. More information can be found at the Ornithological Society's website.
