Fans of feathers pull together for 109th Audubon bird count
Posted on Monday, December 8, 2008
Birders will flock to 21 Arkansas communities for the Christmas Bird Count, a 109-year-old tradition that allows participants to get outdoors, make a contribution to conservation and engage in friendly competition.
They’ll compete to see who can spot more birds in designated areas.
The count replaced an even older tradition, the “side hunt.” Before the turn of the 20 th century, hunters who went out Christmas Day to bag a turkey or goose for the big feast would also shoot as many feathered critters (some furry ones, too, I suspect ) as they could. These birds were not eaten, they were just piled up.
The hunter with the biggest pile was declared a winner of sorts and had bragging rights until the next Christmas, when others would try to dethrone him.
By 1900 the conservation movement had begun to emerge, and the side hunt was seen as folly. Frank M. Chapman, a New Yorker and an early conservation advocate who was an officer in the Audubon Society, proposed an alternative to the side hunt. He called his plan the Christmas Bird Census (later changed to Count ).
His proposal was that people go out and count the birds instead of killing them, and that they seek to count as many species as possible. For its inaugural season in December 1900, 127 counters in eight states (mostly the Northeastern states ) took tallies of all the birds they could see. Those first participants counted 90 species and 1, 800 individual birds.
A tradition was born, and it spread. Last year, the Christmas Bird Count was conducted in every state, every province of Canada, Mexico, all U. S. territories and in Central and South America. Almost 60, 000 volunteer counters reported seeing 665 species of birds and 57 million individual birds in 2, 112 locations.
In Arkansas alone, 384 counters tallied 164 species in 21 locations.
The Audubon Society continues to sponsor the Christmas Bird Count, which has become the largest and longest-running citizen-science project in the world.
Its methodology is simple. A date and an area are selected. The date can be any day between Dec. 14 of one year and Jan. 9 of the next. The area is a “count circle” with a 15-mile diameter drawn on a map.
The leader of counters in each count circle is “the compiler.” Each compiler divides his circle into segments and assigns a team to count in each segment. Each team is led by an experienced birder, but the team may also include people with no birding experience. Every set of eyes helps.
The team spends most of its assigned day driving and walking about its area and making a tally of all the birds seen (48 mockingbirds, 1, 200 snow geese, eight cardinals, etc. ).
After the day of counting, it is customary for all of the counters in a given circle to gather for a “tally rally.”
The team that saw the most species or the most individual birds, or the person who first spotted an unusual bird, is given some sort of recognition. Rallies usually include food, good cheer and the swapping of birding “war stories.” Rallies also introduce the beginning birder to the birding community.
Numbers from each count circle are then forwarded to a regional compiler. The regional compiler for Arkansas last year, and this one as well, is Leif Anderson of Hector. Anderson is a forester with the U. S. Forest Service. When all of the count circles across the state are complete, compilers will submit their tallies to Anderson. He will summarize the Arkansas totals for an annual CBC Journal to be published in November along with summaries from other regional compilers.
TOO COLD TO COUNT ? Winter is probably the best time to count birds. By December most migrating birds are settled firmly in the area where they are going to spend the next three or four months. It is assumed that birds in this season are relatively fixed objects that will not be double counted.
Furthermore, in Arkansas at least, most of the leaves are off the trees during December, and birds are easier to see and identify.
The 2008-09 count promises to be a special one. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike blew a record number of unusual birds into the Natural State. This Christmas Bird Count will be the first systematic effort to see if any of those species remain within state borders.
Counters will also help determine whether the gradual increase in the number of bald eagles noted in recent years is continuing and if the sharp decline in northern bobwhites since 1970 has bottomed out.
Participants are signing up now. Anyone, regardless of birding experience, can join one or more of the count teams. People simply need to contact the compiler for the count circle where they want to work.
Participants older than age 18 pay $ 5 apiece to cover the cost of the CBC Journal. Younger people count for free.
The fee is also waived for “feeder counters” — homeowners who live within a count circle and participate by watching birds in their yard on the designated day. They e-mail or telephone their counts to the compiler. People who are ill, disabled or who cannot tolerate being outside in winter weather can make a valuable contribution as feeder counters.
The compiler will set a time and place to meet with the other counters. Then all you have to do is get up early and bundle up warmly. Bring a sack lunch, if you want one, and binoculars if you have them.
To find your closest compiler, see the table that accompanies this article or e-mail Anderson at leanderson@fs. fed. us.
Most people who participate in one count want to do it again, year after year. Some families have participated generation after generation.
The database that has been collected during the past 108 years is important to environmental scientists. The numbers provide benchmark comparison points for bird populations in many habitats for scientific investigations.
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