The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania's Chris Kubiak tries out his binoculars at Succop Nature Park in Penn Township last week in preparation for the Dec. 16 bird count across Butler County.

The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania is giving an early holiday present to bird watchers in Butler County.

The society is moving its annual South Butler Christmas Bird Count from Jan. 6 — when daytime temperatures as low as minus 8 kept both birds and bird counters home last year — to Dec. 16 this year.

Chris Kubiak, director for education for the society, said, “Last year we had 48 people total. That was way down from what we usually have.

There were 25 bird counters in the field, he said, and another 23 counting birds at feeders from inside their homes.

Last year’s count tallied 51 bird species and numbered 3,557 individual birds.

The South Butler Christmas Bird Count is conducted within a circular area centered around Mars and running west to Zelienople, south to Cranberry Township, east to the Route 228 corridor and north to Connoquenessing Township.

By moving the bird count to Dec. 16, the society hopes to increase participation in what Kubiak called one of the country’s oldest citizen-scientist programs.

This is an excerpt — find out more about the bird count in Sunday’s Butler Eagle.