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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's tight-knit birdwatching community has been infused with new life and new opportunities through the incorporation of social media as one of its resources.

A dark-eyed junco was spotted and snapped by Vicki St. Germaine in Yellowknife last summer. - photo courtesy of Vicki St Germaine

"I'd say (interest in birdwatching) has always been there but among a smaller group of people," said Suzanne Carriere, a wildlife biologist for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. "I think the social media and the Internet and the new ways people have to communicate are what really has increased the number of people who are trying to learn how to bird."

Earlier this year Carriere tapped into a practice by local birdwatchers of tracking the arrival of different bird species each spring. The group often communicated by e-mail and so Carrier saw Facebook as an opportunity to allow people to share sightings and pictures more quickly and easily.

With almost 150 members, the Facebook group titled Yellowknife Bird Arrivals, has expanded from birding experts to those new to the hobby.

"Everybody has a cellphone with a camera on it, everybody has a digital camera ... and then you send (pictures) to the rest of the group and you learn like that," Carriere said.

"You learn by the social interaction. Now with the social media and electronic devices that we have, there are fewer barriers to knowing somebody who knows birds."

Vicki and Warren St. Germaine are two of these new birders who joined the group last spring. Vicki said she and her husband have identified upwards of 110 different species of birds since February. She and Warren, like many of their fellow birders, report the species and number of birds they see to www.ebird.org, a tracking website launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.

Elizabeth Portman, director at Ecology North and leader of the organization's natural history program, built on the local interest and shared her own passion for birdwatching this summer during bi-weekly birding trips.

"It gets you outside, you get to meet other people and it doesn't cost you anything," she said. "It's good exercise and you do what you can." Portman stressed the hobby is great for all levels of physical ability since birdwatchers can set their own pace and difficulty level for the walk.

Both Portman and Carriere said birding doesn't stop in the winter. Yellowknife will be taking part once again in the 100-year-old Christmas Bird Count, which compiles the information of bird counts that take place in late December all across North America.

"The Christmas Bird Count is great because many people, they understand why it's important, but also it's a time of year where you've been inside the house, had too much turkey, too much couch and then you meet people like yourself and it becomes a social event," Carriere said.

"It doesn't matter how cold it is, people will go out all day and count birds just so they can come back and compare notes and have a hot chocolate or a coffee."

Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley, a fixture in the birding community, is scheduled to give a talk about the Christmas Bird Count as well as tips on bird identification on Dec. 6. More details about the event will be released as it is finalized.

The non-government funded program is currently looking for volunteers and those interested can contact Portman at Ecology North for more details.

Fact file

Number of species sighted in Yellowknife by month

Birdwatchers can log on to the North American bird tracking website, www.ebird.org, to report the species of birds they've seen, when they saw them and where. The database includes information dated from 1900 to 2012, although data is only likely to be reliable starting around 1980.

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