Merritt, British Columbia

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No not a character from Sesame Street but on the weekend the local Naturalists were out counting birds. A couple of reports say that there was a successful count of  many hundreds of mallard ducks by counters in the area of the Chutter ranch east of Merritt a couple of miles. My self, I counted 97 mallards in town from the Nicola Street bridge to the old CPR train bridge a distance of about 1/2 mile . At the bridge were a pair of golden eye ducks  at a healthy distance from the last mallard.

Jerry Sanford a member of the naturalist society and a retired geologist said he speculates that a motel owner may be feeding them at the Nicola bridge. The January 2 date should not be confused as it is the “Christmas Bird Count”

There is a coördinated bird count about the province on that day.

Today in history, January 5th 1972

The United States begins the space shuttle program.