PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 6, 2024
125 years ago, Frank Chapman, an American ornithologist, proposed the idea of changing a Christmas tradition called “side hunts” from a challenge of seeing who could shoot the most birds to simply counting them. It has since grown to more than 2,300 counts with more than 70,000 participants. The counts are now held between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. Each count covers an area defined by a circle 15 miles in diameter. It is impossible to count every bird. Each year the effort will change, too – there might be more people participating, or the weather may be terrible. But this is all tracked (reported by the observers) and accounted for. ~ Doug Hitchcox, Maine Audubon