Photo: Gary Lee on Unsplash.com

By Laura Durenberger-Grunow - Boreal Community Media - February 10, 2025

Grand Marais will participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count on Saturday, February 15, with volunteers needed to survey local areas. For those who would like to join a team, Jeremy Ridlbauer will be meeting people at 425 W Hwy 61 at 7:15 a.m. Ridlbauer will divide people up into teams in order to cover all of downtown Grand Marais, including the Rec Park, Grand Marais Harbor, and Artist's Point. Participants should dress for winter weather, wear sturdy shoes, and bring binoculars or spotting scopes. Each team will designate a member to record bird sightings using their phone. Birders of all skill levels are encouraged to participate. Survey routes typically involve 3-6 miles of walking. Those interested can reach Ridlbauer at 218-370-0733, or [email protected] to sign up. In case of inclement weather, a backup date of February 16 is planned. 

Ridlbauer told Boreal Community Media that, unlike the Christmas Bird Count, which is a 24-hour census within a defined area, the Great Backyard Bird Count is a shorter, more geographically dispersed effort. The proximity of the two counts likely aims to gather more complete data on winter bird populations.

The Great Backyard Bird Count, a joint project of Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, runs from February 14-17. Individuals can contribute by counting birds at any location for at least 15 minutes between those dates and submitting their observations online (www.birdcount.org). The organized Grand Marais effort complements these individual counts.