My two-cents worth, regarding participation by younger people. Christmas bird counts prior to Covid were widely attended and revered by birders of all ages. When Covid hit, most people hunkered down and stayed home or birded sparingly locally. HOWEVER, the younger generation found ways to communicate on social media (Discord, etc.) and, in my opinion, were invincible healthwise and went birding together. After Covid "ended" the "older generations" were (still are?) slow to gather again.
That all being said, the younger generation have become REALLY good birders in their own right! I took it upon myself to reach out to young people and have been making them "Area Leaders" for the Denver CBC. Not just any areas, and certainly not the worse areas. For example, I have young people leading the Marston Reservoir area, another group the Littleton/McClellan Reservoir area, one really young birder and his friends cover a difficult foothills area. ALL of these young people are scouring their areas and finding birds. This year I had one young person "shadow" me in my area at Chatfield Reservoir. Next year she will take over my area; that I've done more or less since the late 1980! I'm just trying to get young people involved in the CBC tradition with us "old timers." After last years' compilation, one of my new, young area leaders came up to me and said, "Thanks for making me an area leader. I had a BLAST!" Needless to say, this year young people in two Denver CBC count areas found TWO new birds never before seen on the Denver CBC! Sandhill Crane and Hammond's Flycatcher! Both well documented with photos.
As far as promoting the Denver CBC to older birders that are new to the hobby, I have reached out via COBIRDS and had DFO reach out via the DFO Facebook account. I've had success with a number of new, older birders joining this year! I will continue to reach out in the coming years. :-)
Again, just my two cents.
Joey Kellner
Littleton, Colorado
On Sunday, December 21, 2025 at 12:15:11 PM UTC-7 Diana Beatty wrote:
Just for fun discussion:Linked below is a map of Christmas Bird Count circles.Is there anywhere in Colorado you think should have one that doesn't? Volunteer capacity and time are certainly factors, but if those weren't problems, where might we be missing?Near me, I thought maybe a circle centered on or around Eleven Mile State Park could be cool. Maybe it would also have Antero and Spinney within it.Diana BeattyEl Paso County******
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