Yesterday we did the Capital Area Christmas Bird Count with Barb. The Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) have a long history. In the late 1800s and early 1900s there was a tradition of a Christmas “side hunt.” Instead of hunting to fill the larder, you went out and killed every bird you could see for fun. Big, small, tasty, unpalatable, ugly, pretty, it didn’t matter. How many you killed is what was important.
Frank Chapman, an ornithologist with the new National Audubon Society, proposed counting birds instead of killing them. So in 1900 the first 25 Christmas Bird Counts took place. There are now over 2000 counts. Tens of thousands of people participate. This is the longest running example of citizen science going. The results are published annually in American Birds.
The counts are set up in 15 mile diameters circles. The idea is to count everything inside the circle. Obviously exact counts are impossible and counts are biased by level of effort and observer skill. Still, there is value in the data set and some long term trends can be teased out of the data.
When we were in Bloomington we regularly participated in the Lake Monroe CBC. A person who shall remain nameless ran the Lake Monroe CBC like a Field Marshal, but the Lake Monroe CBC was always one of the most productive in Indiana. In terms of number of species observed, number of individual birds tallied, and number of participants we kicked butt. Our cabin was inside the count circle so Lise would lead a group that worked out of the cabin. I and a friend named Jess would lead a group into a back country area. We would start in the morning, trying for owls while it was dark, and didn’t finish until almost dark at the end of the day. We would do an easy 12 miles of walking during the day. In all weather. On multiple occasions the temperatures were in the single digits.
The Capital Area CBC isn’t quite as glamorous. A number of counts, like the Capitol Area CBC, were set up decades ago centered on the urban area where a particular club or Audubon chapter was centered. Unfortunately, through the decades the urban areas have grown and underlying landscape in the count areas has changed. What were once fields and woods are now subdivisions.
Usually a count circle is divided into territories to facilitate a comprehensive survey and a leader is assigned to a territory. God help anyone that poaches into another territory. Unless your initials are D.W. which allows you to poach anywhere you want. Some people hold onto those territories through the ages like Nebraska season tickets. They get passed down generation to generation and no interlopers are allowed in. Lesser mortals are stuck with the leftovers. A big component of Barb’s territory consists of driving through trailer courts looking at bird feeders. There is also the opportunity to check out the landfill and the cemeteries in the area.
Even with the drudgery of counting birds at trailer park feeders there is some fun in the CBCs. Through the ages Lise and I have done Christmas Bird Counts in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Delaware. They are fun and even if you are stuck driving through trailer courts you are contributing to a larger body of knowledge. There is always the hope that your group will turn up something unexpected that no other group will. This year we had the high count of starlings for the Capitol Area CBC. On a brighter note, Lise did get a northern pintail at the one place in the territory with a little bit of water. That brings her total up to 308 for the year.
Lise, Vince, and Barb checking out the area.
Barb takes us to the best birding places. Breath deep, the gathering gloom. We did get ~1200 starlings here, the high count for the CBC.
Our territory.
They all add to the count.
This was in one of the cemeteries we covered. How useable is a shepherd’s hook that is permanently attached to a bench? What happens if you want to hang your shepherd’s hook over your solar light?
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 