Tips: Private Property

When given an area for a bird count, invariably most of it will be private property that you can't just go waltzing onto to look for birds just because you might have seen a Goshawk. So do you leave all this area uncounted? Well often yes; the compiler will have given you a large enough area that you will be plenty busy in the places that you can be without worrying about places that you can't.

However, this doesn't mean that you have to miss these spots. There is a very simple solution for this: ask permission. I know a guy who gets some of his best finds at a closed kids summer camp, because he contacted the owners and asked if he could count there. The same guy contacted a plant nursery and got their permission to wander around their property. One time I was doing a new count (for me) and saw a huge flock of birds fly into a backyard with a privacy fence, I knocked on the door to ask if I could look in their backyard, and surprise, it was one of my customers. Their yard became a great go-to spot in future years.

As long as you're respectful of people's property and their privacy (don't put an eBird pin right on their house for the Northern Hawk Owl you found without their permission), you'd be amazed at how many more places you can get opened up to you. By the way, if you do get into some private areas, then let the compiler know that you may need a smaller area in order to still get adequate coverage.

The same goes for sites that are seasonally closed, for the Rock Cut CBC for example, many of our sites are closed for the winter, but we got permission from the conservation district to enter those sites on count day, if you do this, I would recommend that you get a letter that you can display on your dashboard which police would see if they get called by a neighbor.

As an aside, if you get permission to go onto an otherwise restricted property, consider keeping a separate list of birds and giving it to the owner afterwards, in most cases you will have birds on there that they've never heard of, and that can get people excited, meaning that they may want you back next year, or you might make a new birder out of them.

Posted on October 16, 2021 04:34 PM by neylon