In late December Mid-Coast Audubon and friends will conduct their annual Christmas Bird Count in three local areas as part of Audubon and Cornell's Northern Hemisphere citizen science project.

A person does not have to be an Audubon member or an expert birder

to participate, just eyes and desire to learn and visit new areas. We will have teams traversing the count areas and observers at bird feeders too.

Each count area is 15 miles in diameter with a fixed center to assure counting the same area annually.

The Bunker Hill count encompasses the area from Dresden Mills to Jefferson, Whitefield, Alna and Waldoboro and will be Wednesday, December 19; contact compilers Peter Liss 549-3731 or Joe Gray at 563-3578. The Pemaquid-Damariscotta count, the area from Pemaquid Point to Damariscotta, the River Road to East Boothbay and Muscongus Bay, will be Saturday, December 29; contact Joe Gray at 563-3578 to participate.

The Thomaston-Rockland count is now in its 40th year and will be Saturday, December 15 and Don Reim-er is the contact person at 273-3146.

Those who cannot take part in the field count are invited to spend an hour or so counting the birds at their feeder in the count area on the count day (call Joe Gray at 563-3578 to register).

This is the 108th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, which began in 1900 to determine populations and health of birds and to provide scientific data for researchers.

For more information, call Joe Gray at 563-3578.