The Adventures of Chippy & Friends: Citizen Science

I have been hearing a lot of ‘Citizen Science”. Ordinary people volunteer their time to help collect data on all sorts of subjects and then they submit it to a big database. Scientists and experts use that information to study trends and changes over large areas of the country. Cornell Labs has a citizen science project called Feeder Watch. Mom signed us up for a second year in a row to participate. From November to mid-April, you write down all of the species of birds that come to your feeders over a two day period (once a week). You have to count the highest number of each species that shows up at one time.

You spend a lot of time looking out the window counting birds. It becomes a bit of a game to find the most birds and highest number of species for the season. On the downside, Mom gives the birds several tons of sunflower seeds to “bribe” them to come to the feeders. The thought of giving away so many seeds to the birds is enough to make any chipmunk go insane! Those seeds could be put to much better use in my six commercial underground warehouses. The birds are such messy eaters. They leave shells everywhere. Another good reason to leave us chipmunks in charge of the sunflower seed.

While I was contemplating this travesty of injustice, Mom knocked on the burrow door and asked if I would help with the project. She needed someone to take photos of the birds, and said I was most qualified person for the job. I grabbed my gear and went to work. I even made some new friends.

I setup my photograph bird blind in the wheel well of the car. It was great advantage point.

What the heck?! That bird looks like something from the Jurassic Park movies.[Compared to Chippy, this female turkey is size of T-Rex - Mom] Thank goodness I am in a steel reinforce bird blind.