LEWISTON — The Stanton Bird Club of Lewiston and Auburn will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2, in Room 285 at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, 55 Westminster St.

Nat Wheelwright PhD, retired professor of natural sciences at Bowdoin College, will give a talk titled Maine Bird Observations. The meeting is free and open to the public.

Wheelwright served as director of the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island, New Brunswick, where he studied Savannah sparrows, tree swallows and island plants. He has taught and conducted research in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Botswana, Ecuador and New Zealand.

The club will also host the Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, Dec. 21. Starting about 7 a.m. and running until about 4 p.m., the count will take place within a 15-mile diameter “count circle,” centered on the Bates College campus. The circle is divided into three sectors each in Lewiston and Auburn.

In each sector, an assigned leader will help identify birds seen and record the findings. Most of the birding is done by driving between known locations, then getting out to locate birds and count them. The more participants, the more birds sighted and counted. At the end of the day, the group will meet to tally the findings. The results will be reported and correlated with the larger international project, which will publish the findings. To participate, contact Linda Seamans at 207-240-1380 or e-mail her at seamans.linda@gmail.com.

In the annual event, the Stanton group sights about 50 species on average, with the total number of birds sometimes numbering up to 4,000. The importance of the annual count has increased with the decline in numbers of a great variety of bird species.

The Stanton Bird Club manages the Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary and the Woodbury Nature Sanctuary in Monmouth and Litchfield. More information can be found at www.StantonBirdClub.org. The results of the various trips are posted there, often with photos. The club also has a Facebook page.

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