Blackbrook Audubon Society is inviting nature enthusiasts to contribute to its early-winter bird census Dec. 28, as Blackbrook will join thousands of other volunteer teams across North and South America for the 125th annual Christmas Bird Count. The object of the CBC is to count all the bird species and number of birds in a 15-mile diameter circle in one 24-hour period between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5, according to a news release. Anyone living within the circle can also report birds at their feeder. To be assigned to a team covering a specific area on foot or in a vehicle, or to report backyard feeder counts, contact Dan Donaldson, the compiler for Blackbrook’s circle, at [email protected]. Teams usually meet for an optional lunch and the location this year is Hellriegel’s Inn, 1840 Mentor Ave. in Painesville. After the morning sightings are added to a preliminary list, counters may choose to head back out after lunch in search of more birds, the release stated. Blackbrook‘s CBC circle extends from Lost Nation Airport to western Perry, Lake Erie south to Holden Arboretum and Big Creek Park in Geauga County. Blackbrook’s territory covers Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake counties. The Ashtabula CBC, centered just east of Kingsville, will also be Dec. 28. Marc Hanneman compiles this count which covers both Ashtabula and Conneaut Harbors, as well as several Ashtabula County Metroparks. Contact Marc at 440-645-6245 or [email protected] to help with that count. He plans to assign territories by Dec. 15. The Burton CBC held in Geauga County will be Jan. 1. Linda Gilbert, the primary compiler and a naturalist with Geauga Park District, can be reached at [email protected]. Dan Best will assist with the compiling of lists for the Burton count. Circles for the count stretch from Arctic Bay, Baffin Island in Canada to a NOAA research vessel in the Drake Passage at the southern tip of South America; as far west as Guam in the Pacific to the eastern tip of Brazil. Census takers in the Northeast Ohio circles share the same mission and may count on the same day as birders in some of these far-off places, according to the release The Christmas Bird Count is the longest-running community science bird project in North America and helps biologists monitor bird population trends. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman proposed a new holiday tradition – a “Christmas Bird Census” when people would count birds rather than hunt them.