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VIDEO: A very wet Langley Christmas bird count

Numbers down for annual event

Rain hampered the annual Christmas bird count in Langley on Saturday, with fewer people turning out and those who did attend having to endure a massive downpour to conduct the tally.

“It was brutal,” said organizer Mike Klotz.

“The water was keeping everyone away, even the birds.”

Klotz said some teams went hours without spotting more than a few birds.

About 16 people showed up to carry out the tally of birds within several areas of Langley, dividing up into teams to survey specific neighbourhoods.

They counted 5,200 birds, well below the average of 6,000 to 7,000 recorded most years.

The count is an early-winter bird census by the National Audubon Society, conducted with the help of more than 70,000 volunteers across Canada, the U.S. and many other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Information collected by participants over the past century are one of only two large pools of data about how birds of the Americas are faring over time.

READ MORE: Birders brave the cold for annual Christmas count

Christmas bird counts in the Lower Mainland are each conducted on a single day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5.

Each one is organized by a birding club or naturalist organization.

In Langley, the count is part of the larger White Rock/Surrey/Langley count.

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Langley bird count organizer Mike Klotz. Black Press photo
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Langley bird count volunteer Devon Comstock was looking for species of birds in Milner on Saturday. Black Press photo