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American Bird watchers coast to coast are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010.  Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers counting birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges. 

Each checklist submitted by these "citizen scientists" helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology,the National Audubon Society , and Bird Studies Canada learn more about how the birds are doing--and how to protect them. Last year, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent's largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.

Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count,
from novice bird watchers to experts.

Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their sightings online at www.birdcount.org. One 2009 participant said, "Thank you for the opportunity to participate in citizen science. I have had my eyes opened to a whole new interest and I love it!"

Winter is such a vulnerable period for birds, so winter bird distributions are likely to be very sensitive to change.

There is only one way--citizen science--to gather data on private lands where people live and GBBC has been doing this across the continent for many years.

GBBC has enormous potential both as an early warning system and in capturing and engaging people in more intensive sampling of birds across the landscape."

Bird populations are always shifting and changing.

For example, 2009 GBBC data highlighted a huge southern invasion of Pine Siskins across much of the eastern United States. Participants counted 279,469 Pine Siskins on 18,528 checklists, as compared to the previous high of 38,977 birds on 4,069 checklists in 2005. Failure of seed crops farther north caused the siskins to move south to find their favorite food.

Bird Count Website

On the www.birdcount.org website, participants can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting during the count. The site has tips to help identify birds and special materials for educators. Participants may also enter the GBBC photo contest by uploading images taken during the count. Many images will be featured in the GBBC website's photo gallery. All participants are entered in a drawing for prizes that include bird feeders, binoculars, books, CDs, and many other great birding products.

Canadian Bird Studies Birdcount

In 2010, Bird Studies Canada (BSC) joins the GBBC as the program's Canadian partner. "Bird Studies Canada is delighted to be the Canadian partner for this extremely valuable program," said George Finney, President of BSC. "Participating in the GBBC is an excellent way for Canadians to reconnect with their love of nature and birds."

For more information about the GBBC, visit the website at www.birdcount.org. 

We're the village who must rear our children better.  The statistics about the well-being of our children are astounding, and as older family, neighbors, volunteers, and care takers, we can do something about this disaster.

"The population under 18 in the United States is both the poorest and most culturally diverse part of our society," cultural anthropologist and psychologist Richard Shweder,   said. "Among that group, 42 percent are members of racial and ethnic minorities and about half of those are the children of immigrants." "Dealing with the issue of diversity is important for everyone."

Whether a parent or a professional caregiver, anyone who has cared for children is likely to have dozens of questions about their development.

With the intent of providing up-to-date information on the medical, psychological, educational and legal issues related to children and their development, a leading group of scholars has created The Child: An Encyclopedia Companion.

Drawing from a variety of disciplines, the contributing authors crafted the 529 entries that make up this nearly 1,200-page reference volume. The Editor-in-Chief of this decade-long project is the cultural anthropologist and psychologist Richard Shweder, who leads research on human development at the University of Chicago.

Articles in The Child cover birth through adolescence, and 41 supplemental essays provide readers with additional insights on subjects related to development, such as how children view race and how different cultures prepare children to enter adulthood.

Multicultural Approach

The multicultural approach is intended for parents and professionals to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of childhood in the United States and around the world.

This single volume, A-Z reference book might be described as "everything you ever wanted to know about children and childhood but never even thought to ask - the coverage is meant to be authoritative, balanced, humane and eye-opening, and the book is even fun to read." said Shweder, the William Claude Reavis Distinguished Service Professor in Comparative Human Development at the University.

The University of Chicago Press published The Child, which Shweder describes as a current, informative reference on topics from children's religious rights, toilet training and reproductive technologies, to family rituals, respiratory diseases or understanding how children learn.

The book also looks at the cultural, historical and legal aspects of childhood, as well as the symbolic worlds of language and literature that are most relevant to children.

It Takes a Village...

"There has been a general tendency for the state to take more responsibility for the care of children. The world has become more child-focused," Shweder pointed out. Issues of child abuse become particularly important for policy-makers trying to decide how to craft laws in the best interest of the child. In 16 countries, that eagerness has led to laws that protect children from spankings by parents. Nevertheless, even as the world globalizes, great diversity continues to exist in family life norms and ideals for "normal" child development.

Adoption is another area in which cultural and legal issues arise. In some cultures, individuals other than the biological parents raise the children within those societies. By contrast, U.S. laws governing adoption are strict, and Americans' understanding of what constitutes a family has changed; more international adoptions take place and people create family units in which the members don't all look alike, the book points out.

While open-minded about the various ways that many issues in growing up can be experienced, the encyclopedia also aims to enable readers to evaluate and contextualize what they learn from medical, psychological and legal professionals and to make more informed uses of their services. For example, some parents have shunned vaccinations and fear they are a possible cause of autism. The book notes: "Several studies, many professional panels, and even congressional hearings in the United States and Europe have definitely ruled out any association between the two."

Other research in the encyclopedia provides data on how popular music lyrics and video games affect children, pointing to studies that show music lyrics are not as harmful to children as violent video games might be.

In The Child, authoritative and balanced summaries of knowledge about childhood complement information on issues related to policy.

The diversity of America's child-age population plays a big role in understanding the needed response, Shweder points out.

Source: Newswise