Finding time to get out of the house during the holiday season can be difficult but the Burke Mountain Naturalists are providing a handy excuse.

The environmental group is hosting its annual Christmas Bird Count and needs volunteers to take some time on Jan. 2 to stare at the skies. (There is also a Vancouver-area count on Dec. 20.)

For some, the annual bird count, which is the oldest in North America, has become a Christmas tradition, with groups of up to 70 people coming out to various parts of the area.

Mike Griffin, the founder of the Burke Mountain Naturalists and Christmas Bird Count organizer, said it is important for the community to track the bird population.

“I just want to keep monitoring the health of our environment and how human development is impacting it,” he said. “There are some places where it has been shown that there were a diversity of birds and now we are down to the civic five.”

The “civic five” Griffin refers to are the common northwest crow, the glaucous wing gull, mallards, rock pigeons and the Canada goose.

“They are very adaptable to any sort of development,” he said.

But past counts show the Tri-Cities still manages to maintain a diverse bird population. Griffin said last year, despite freezing weather and snowy conditions, 70 species of birds were spotted and counted for the survey; the highest count the club has ever had was 95 species.

The group has seen everything from humming birds to great horned owls and golden eagles. But the most impressive bird spotted at the count, according to Griffin, was a gyrfalcon.

While the Burke Mountain Naturalists partook in its first bird count in 1999, the winter count has been going on for 110 years, with thousands of volunteers holding local counts across North America.

Up until the turn of the century, it was tradition for many families to pick up their rifles and shoot birds on Christmas day. When people began to realize the impact this had on the environment, there was a culture change and many people started to count the birds instead of killing them.

Peter Candido, a member of Nature Vancouver, which takes in data from across the Lower Mainland, said many trends have been identified through the counts. Warmer temperatures have many birds coming further north and staying well through the cold months, he said.

Griffin said the warmer temperatures and the fact that more people are using feeders, which give birds little incentive to fly south, have led to changes in the local bird population.

“They are moving north progressively and have now managed to survive our winters all winter long,” he said.

Despite the fact numbers of volunteers has been fairly consistent the last few years, Griffin said the Burke Mountain Naturalists are always looking for more. Those interested in participating in the count can email Griffin at m1keg@shaw.ca. The group is also looking for someone to host the post-count potluck.

The cost to have a count form recognized by the Audubon Society is $5 but Griffin said people can do counts that are not officially recorded.

For more information, visit www.bmn.bc.ca.

gmckenna@tricitynews.com