National Biological Survey Needs You--to Help Tally Birds : The Department of the Interior wants to make the Audubon Society’s annual avian count part of the national study.

Here’s a chance to be a little part of history--natural history--right here in Ventura County, during the holiday season.

I’m talking about participation on a volunteer basis in the U. S. National Biological Survey. Launched in all 50 states this fall, it is nothing less than a census of every biological species in our nation. This makes it something akin to the venerable U. S. Geological Survey, which for years has been keeping tabs on all the minerals in the nation. (Both are projects of the U. S. Department of the Interior.)

The holiday season is a good time to get involved, because local and nearby chapters of the Audubon Society will be happy to let you join their famous Christmas bird count. The Department of the Interior wants to make the results a part of the National Biological Survey. Speaking on behalf of the Department’s U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Stan Droege described the avian part of the National Biological Survey: “Almost all the data is going to be volunteer. We think the Audubon data is great. It’s well corroborated and statistically sound.”

As he described it, for nearly a century the Audubon Society’s annual effort has provided the science community reliable indications of where America’s birds live and whether various species are thriving or going extinct. Our local chapters have consistently been among the most thorough counters in the nation.

The daylong event traditionally takes place at various times during the holiday season. This year the Ventura chapter counts on Jan. 2, and the group up in Santa Barbara does it Jan. 1. The Conejo Valley chapter did so last Saturday. Nationwide, more than 40,000 volunteers will join in the effort.

Art Marshall, president of the Ventura chapter of the Audubon Society, discussed with me an unusual news item related to this year’s count. Last month in Washington, there were suggestions that the Audubon Society had an anti-business bias and that data from the count shouldn’t be included in an official project like the Biological Survey. There was even a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives about the matter. “It’s ironic that volunteerism, which was being promoted by the last Administration, is now being deprecated as self-serving,” Marhall wrote in this month’s newsletter of the Ventura chapter’s newsletter.

I guess some members of Congress felt that Audubon folks would fib about what birds they saw--or didn’t see--and maybe cause trouble for lumber or oil companies. Our local congressional delegation recorded a divided vote on the issue. The Department of the Interior is proceeding with the survey as planned and has announced its intention to go on working with volunteer groups such as the Audubon Society. The society’s national headquarters issued its own announcement that it will be happy to be included in the work of the Biological Survey.

Marshall was a bit miffed at the idea that his people would be anything other than straight arrows about counting birds this holiday season--or any other time. “If a bird is spotted it has to be verified by other people that very day, and somebody has to go back the next day for a second look. You can’t get away with fibbing. Besides, we’re watching one another.”

So if you join the Audubon group’s bird count this particular season, you may get a glimpse of several kinds of ruffled feathers.

Details

* FYI: To volunteer for in the Audubon Society’s Christmas bird count, which is being considered for inclusion in the U. S. National Biological Survey, call 482-0411 about the event in Ventura Jan. 2 or 642-1585 about the event in Santa Barbara Jan. 1.