BIRD COUNT: Like watching birds?

The National Audubon Society’s 119th Christmas Bird Count will be held Dec. 14 through Jan. 5, and you may be able to help.

There are several groups participating in the region. We’ve looked up the closest on the event website map and listed them here:

• Benezette, count date Jan. 1, contact compiler Mark Johnson, luckybirder@gmail.com

Contact the group beforehand if you’d like to take part.

• Emporium, count date Dec. 23, contact compiler Bob Martin, bmartin@zitomedia.net or 486-1990.

• St. Bonaventure, N.Y., contact compiler Regina VanScoy, vanscoy716@outlook.com

• Warren, contact compiler Michael Toole, 723-4714 or 688-5121, or Don Watts, 723-9125

• Scio, N.Y., contact compiler Ken Reichman, ken@candlewiz.com

• Jamestown, N.Y., count date Dec. 16, contact compiler Bill Seleen at wseleen@stny.rr.com or 716-386-3209.

If you want to take part, contact your nearest group ASAP to see if more eyes are needed.

Birdwatchers will be participating from across North and South America and up into the Arctic, with the Arctic Bay group serving as “the most northerly” bird counting participants. (“Coffee will be served. This is the High Arctic, warm clothes are essential.”)

The Drake Passage team at the tip of South America will conduct its count from an NOAA research vessel in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The Nome, Alaska, birdwatchers are being asked to jot down their mode of transportation they use. (“Observations by vehicle, snowmachine, foot, ski, or dog team are welcome.”)

Meanwhile, Laredo, Texas, participants can count from “private ranches, beautiful property along the Rio Grande River and very birdy city parks.”

Bird-counters in the Bronx-Westchester Region of New York “was started by the famed Bronx County Bird Club in 1924” — 94 years ago. “The count has included participants such as Roger Tory Peterson.” (Peterson was a famed American naturalist, ornithologist and artist who started studying nature as a youth in Jamestown.)

The San Bernardino Valley counters, who spotted 12,000 birds and 130 species in 2017, reminded their group: “Remember the count is for pleasure and for science and the more pairs of eyes out in the field the more birds we should find.”

Each count happens in a circle with a 15-mile diameter over a period of 24 hours.

It is free to take part, but donations are accepted.

If you miss this count, the Great Backyard Bird Count, organized by Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will happen over President’s Day weekend in February.