I was more than a little disappointed in the turnout that I received for this years Allegany May Count. I had to ask compiler Fran Pope how she was able to get 48 participants to our 8. Admittedly, I don't do much advertising for the count so perhaps it would help to get this in the paper. Incidentally the Garrett May Count had a banner year this year with 150 species! I'm envious of those numbers.

Comparison with the CBC
I don't usually have much territory to divy out on the Christmas Count because the circle is small, much of it is in West Virginia, and much of it is downtown Cumberland. Birding in downtown Cumberland isn't usually very productive unless we are trying to up our Starling, House Sparrow and Rock Pigeon numbers. Feeder counters help out quite a bit and rarities have been known to show up at feeders in the winter time ! I can never have enough feeder counters on the CBC (as long as they are in the circle). I may have found some help covering WV by posting to the West Virginia Birds Listserv. I have a list of folks to try and contact next year. I have tried covering it when nobody else does, but I'm sure I don't know that area very well.

On the other hand I have more territory than I know what to do with on the May Count and never enough people to cover all of it. There are small slivers of Green Ridge State Forest with trails that I could walk on for most of the day if I had someone to drop me off at one end.

A Different Perspective
I was lamenting to a fellow club member that I haven't had much support with this count. His advice was not to worry about covering the whole county. The point is to have fun. I always enjoy birding on the May Count. I look forward to it every year. If nobody shares our enthusiasm, then I guess we can go birding wherever we want to! Still I can't help but think we could get our species count up a bit with a bit more help.