Fair Meadows Sanctuary and State Natural Area is home to a wonderful diversity of habitats and birds, including in winter! The annual Christmas Bird Count is a great citizen science project that involves meeting other enthusiastic birders and helping collect important data about birds at the same time!

Penny and Gary Shackelford, resident managers of Fair Meadows, have been tallying birds at the sanctuary since the early 2000’s, concurrently with the Fort Atkinson CBC. Starting in 2023, we began offering a separate and fun Fair Meadows Christmas Bird Count! Although Fair Meadows does not have its own CBC circle, we submit data to eBird as CBC data anyway.

They are looking for 12 experienced birders to join us and walk through Fair Meadow Sanctuary near Milton in groups of four to count birds between 9:30am and 3:30pm. Participants are invited to a mid-day break in the house for chili and socializing. There will be quite a bit of hiking, possibly through snow.

FIELD TRIP/OUTING LEADERS: Penny and Gary Shackelford (fairmeadows@swibirds.org)

APPROX. DISTANCE WALKED: 3+ miles

REGISTRATION REQUIRED? Yes, and will open on November 1.

More about the Christmas Bird Count

The Christmas Bird Count, held annually throughout North America between mid-December and early-January, is a snapshot of where bird species are found during the winter season. Birders count the number and individuals of species over a 24 hour period, and submit the data to National Audubon. This project is important for estimating distributions and populations, and find oddities in nature (e.g., what is that Clay-colored Sparrow doing in Wisconsin in December?). It is considered the longest-running formal citizen science project in the nation, now in it’s 124th year! Learn more here.

Cover image by Gary Shackelford