Education

Current News / Past News – Issues

“2013 Spring Canada Goose Program” (click on title to read entire article)

Education

“Citizen scientists are non-scientist volunteers who make observations and send the information to real scientists who search for large-scale patterns and trends in the data. The most well-known citizen science project is the Christmas Bird Count in which thousands of bird watchers record bird species and send the data to the National Audubon Society.

Hunters, anglers, and bird watchers have been helping wildlife science for years by returning bands and tags from captured animals (photo shows duck leg band). However, new ways to become a citizen scientist are increasing and opportunities are numerous.

It doesn’t take a PhD to be a citizen scientist. Participate alone or with a group on a topic that interests you. Work in your yard and garden, or in a nearby field, forest, lake or stream. The time commitment is up to you – from 15 minutes counting birds at your feeder to several months recording dates of flowering and leaf fall of a plant in your yard.

We have published a series of articles for the Federation’s monthly newspaper Out-of-doors in which we describe our experiences as citizen scientists watching bees, birds, buds, ice, frogs, and water. The purpose of this article is to provide up-dates on our experiences, news about up-coming opportunities, and information about some results.”

Read the articles on watching bees, birds, buds, ice, frogs, and water in these past issues of Out-of Doors. (click on subject below to open article)

Birds – March 2011
Plants – May 2011
Bees – September 2011
Frogs – May 2012
Ice – May 2012
Water – September 2012