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NB Naturalist Feature – iNaturalist Canada: Community Science in Action

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Like nature itself, our ways of exploring and understanding it has evolved. But while natural evolution happens over millennia, our methods to study nature have advanced rapidly in a very short timeframe, and none more quickly than the digital technology we use. Even still, until quite recently advanced technology in science was reserved for highly trained specialists undertaking localized research.

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NB Naturalist Feature: The Christmas Bird Count, North America’s Longest-Running Citizen Science Project

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The Christmas Bird Count is North America’s longest-running citizen science project. It started on Christmas Day 1900 and at 9 am on that day, a New Brunswicker, William H. Moore, became Canada’s first Christmas bird counter. 

For the next 50 years, “CBCs” in New Brunswick were patchy and infrequent, only a dozen in all. But since 1956, there have been CBCs, sometimes more than 50 in a year, all over the province.

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NB Naturalist Feature: The 2024 Christmas Bird Count in New Brunswick 

NB Naturalist /

About 1000 people participated in 48 Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) all over New Brunswick in December 2023 and early 2024. 

We spent 1750 hours (equivalent to more than two-hundred 8-hour days) covering 1100 km on foot  and 13,000 km by car in search of wintertime birds. Count Day temperatures averaged -2ºC at the  start and +1 ºC at the end so most count areas had at least some open water.  

By the end of it, we had found 126,000 birds from 139 species plus another two species during each of Count Week and Count Period for a total of 141 species. This is the lowest number of individuals since 2015, but only one less than last year’s recent high of 140 species.

NB Naturalist Feature: The 2024 Christmas Bird Count in New Brunswick  Read More »

NB Naturalist Feature: New Brunswick’s First Dozen Christmas Bird Counts – 1900 to 1956

NB Naturalist /

Many New Brunswickers know that on Christmas Day 1900, William H. Moore, a naturalist, farmer, big game outfitter and educator from Scotch Lake, York County, New Brunswick became Canada‘s first Christmas Bird Counter. More than 2,000 Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) have been done in New Brunswick since the year 1900 but William Moore never did another count, and fewer than a dozen were done over the next 50 years.

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NB Naturalist Feature: The 2023 Christmas Bird Count in New Brunswick 

NB Naturalist /

About 1000 people participated in 48 Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) all over New Brunswick in December 2023 and early 2024. 

We spent 1750 hours (equivalent to more than two-hundred 8-hour days) covering 1100 km on foot  and 13,000 km by car in search of wintertime birds. Count Day temperatures averaged -2ºC at the  start and +1 ºC at the end so most count areas had at least some open water.  

By the end of it, we had found 126,000 birds from 139 species plus another two species during each of Count Week and Count Period for a total of 141 species. This is the lowest number of individuals since 2015, but only one less than last year’s recent high of 140 species.

NB Naturalist Feature: The 2023 Christmas Bird Count in New Brunswick  Read More »

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