Resources

Overview Maps

The Cochrane CBC count area encompasses a 24-km (15-mile) wide area centred around the Gleneagles area to the east of downtown Cochrane. 

Area Maps and Spatial Data

Download and print the map for your count area within the count circle. Maps print best as 11x17. Extra copies will be available on the count day. 

Area Maps

Click here to access downloadable area maps with subdivisions: 

Bearspaw: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WvkuTt7xTR1uML438VYIpVEOg4b3UNUB?usp=sharing 

Glenbow: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17idy8TsK9m4CCY_tTxTKHyCyYtfBh6go?usp=sharing 

Mitford: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1O4kfJwXub9h4AmFqiFDswjXr9Lz2hgGN?usp=sharing 

Oxyoke: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13aXyqdjJwMBRld2e1DYIooBFYlAD1jn6?usp=sharing 

Ranche: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lcmtpHZOlkqA-8cMgACW3riPAUP5Q_6l?usp=sharing 

Riverfront: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BEp4LKWci7_Q886Nh2st0pOuGlpL6tVm?usp=sharing 

Stoney: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10fBL3sXyDNDWbIggsur5ZpIHo-dMVVh1?usp=sharing 

Spatial Data

Click here to access downloadable kmz files for each Area: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Fr0caenRLDD1kFd6_4NyOYqx1jvH67QB?usp=sharing 

Datasheets

Feeder Watch Instructions

The purpose of the feeder watcher program is to determine the highest number of each species seen on your feeders and the area around your feeding station. Your complete feeder watch observation has two parts:

1. The Checklist: a list of the highest number of each bird species you saw

2. Effort: the time you spent watching and counting, and the number of observers in your household who contributed.

Checklists without effort data cannot be accepted.

How to Count

Usually the same birds are coming and going so you will need to take a visual “snapshot” and tell us the highest number of each species you counted at a single glance during the entire observation period. Please do not add a count to one taken several minutes earlier—you are counting some of the same birds twice. If you saw 4 chickadees at 11:00 and 6 chickadees at 11:15, the count is six, not ten. In species where males and females can be easily discriminated, such as juncos and house finches, counting the sexes separately will yield more accurate results.

Timing

The observation is timed, so please record the beginning of your watch, the end point, and report your elapsed total as hrs. x where x equals a fraction of the final hour. This can be accomplished while you are doing chores, working around home, and so forth as long as you are checking and counting at regular and constant intervals. If you leave home, stop the clock. Time spent on errands away from home does not count.

Matters can get tricky in households with multiple observers and feeding areas:

• Two or more watchers observing one feeding area should contribute to one checklist and share one observation period.

• Two or more watchers in one household independently covering separate feeding areas keep separate checklists and times, but submit one document with the highest number of each species culled from the lists and a grand total of the observation periods. Do not add up your species counts, only the time values—remember the visual “snapshot” metaphor?

Reporting

Email your results to your Area Lead the afternoon of Count Day, or as soon as possible. Each household should submit only one checklist, which must include the effort data.

Information courtesy of the Concord CBC: https://concordcbc.org/how-to/become-a-feeder-watcher/

Other Resources

Here you will find additional resources, such as a fundraising form, summarized count instructions, the rarity form, and a vehicle sign. Extra copies of these documents will be available on the count day.