{"id":314352,"date":"2019-12-19T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T20:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=314352"},"modified":"2019-12-19T06:00:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T20:00:37","slug":"cnmi-birdwatchers-take-part-in-annual-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cnmi-birdwatchers-take-part-in-annual-count\/","title":{"rendered":"CNMI birdwatchers take part in annual count"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
From left, Rhonda DiCostanzo, Lee Roy Sablan, Larry Maurin, and Emilie Kohler. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fifteen volunteers trooped to the American Memorial Park in Garapan early yesterday morning to join this year\u2019s Audubon Christmas Bird Count, which was organized by the Division of Fish and Wildlife of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources to help celebrate the count\u2019s 20th year of being done on Saipan.<\/p>\n

The Christmas Bird Count, which involves having volunteers counting the number of birds they see in their assigned locations to determine avian population densities, had the volunteers going to locations such as the Marpi landfill, Suicide Cliff, Kagman, and Coral Ocean Point.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s bird count on Saipan was organized by Emilie Kohler and she was joined by four Division of Wildlife employees and fifteen volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Christmas Bird Count started in the 1900s and is a citizen science project,\u201d Kohler said. \u201cThis means that anyone and everyone is encouraged to participate, especially if you have good bird identifying skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Kohler, birds that aren\u2019t originally from Saipan stay on island for the wintertime and, once it is spring or fall, they start to migrate. In order to see reoccurring or new bird species, the bird count is held between the endings of December or beginning of January.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event is\u2026a good opportunity for the community to get together and learn about the birds,\u201d according to Kohler. \u201cThere has been a database that has been provided since the 1900s, so you can see if there\u2019s any troubling trends with the bird populations or if there\u2019s good news,\u201d <\/p>\n

There is still no final tabulation on the birds that were counted on Saipan but Kohler hopes to beat last year\u2019s record of bird species recorded on island.<\/p>\n

Larry Maurin, who has been participating in the count since 2005, said, \u201cIt is a nice tradition and it\u2019s nice to meet birders who are experts or beginners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rhonda DiCostanzo, a first-time birder on Saipan, used to do the bird count in the U.S. mainland \u201cbut these birds [here] are very different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to learn new things. The birds are beautiful and I love to identify the local birds. It\u2019s just wonderful,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

DiCostanzo encourages people who have yet to participate in the annual Christmas Bird Count to participate since it is a wonderful way to be outdoors, great way to be active, and to learn about nature.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Annual Christmas Bird Count also happened on Rota and Tinian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifteen volunteers trooped to the American Memorial Park in Garapan early yesterday morning to join…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-314352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}