Eyes to the sky: Volunteers head out for Christmas bird count in Regina

Dan Sawatzky braved the cold with his eyes on the sky and his ears intently listening, as part of the annual Christmas bird count in Regina.

A contract biologist, Sawatzky walked about 12.5 kilometres trying to spot house sparrows, chickadees, or, if he is lucky, a red-belliedwoodpecker.

"It hasbeen seen less than 20 times in the province in the last 100 years. It just kind of showed up out of the blue," Sawatzky said. "There were about seven or eight people who stopped by yesterday to have a look for it. A bunch of bird nerds checking out the birds."

You are never going to know all the birds and you are never going to run out of new birds to see.- Dan Sawatzky, volunteer bird counter

The Christmas bird counts have been taking place since 1900 in North America and the early '50s in Regina, according to local count compiler Brett Quiring.

He explained that originally theChristmas tradition involvedpeople going out to see how many birds they could kill until the Audubon Society in the U.S. thought it would be a better plan to count them.

In Regina, the count traditionally happens on Boxing Day.

"These Christmas bird counts are important because we have data going back a very long time, so you can see the changes in bird populations over the long term," Quiring said. "Year-to-year, you have a good year, you have a bad year, but you can see trend lines once you have data going back decades."

The area is set out to be a 24-kilometrewide circle which covers Regina and area, including all of the different habitats birds frequent. Volunteers count every bird they hear or see in the area.

Quiring said they've seen a lot of changes from bird migration patterns to which feathered friends are stopping by.

"You see things like the trees in Regina growing, so we have more boreal birds," he said.

For Sawatzky, who has been doing counts for around 20 years, it's also about the thrill of catching sight of something new.

"There are more than 10,000 species of birds in the world," he said. "You are never going to know all the birds and you are never going to run out of new birds to see."