Annual bird count draws to a close

January 02, 2009 10:28 pm

— By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
news@joplinglobe.com
SCAMMON, Kan. — Before dawn on the first day of the new year, a dozen bird enthusiasts have gathered at the Scammon Express Lane, eager for sunrise.
Hunkered over cups of steaming coffee in a booth marked with a small sign, “Reserved for birders,” they chatted amiably about weather conditions and fondly remembered species they had sighted in the past.
The “birders’’ have gathered here annually for the past 22 years for more than just idle talk. They are among an estimated 500,000 birders across the nation who dedicate a day to counting birds.
Called the Christmas Bird Count, it is a tradition that dates back 100 years.
Citizen science
Before 1900, people often engaged in a holiday tradition known as the “Christmas Side Hunt,” in which they would choose sides and go afield with guns. Whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered and furry quarry won, according to historical reports.
No hunting limits existed, nor were hunters required to purchase stamps, permits, licenses, and the like — anything that moved was game. But around the turn of the 20th century, conservation was in its beginning stages and there was concern about declining bird populations.
According to the Audubon Society, beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman proposed a new holiday tradition: A Christmas Bird Census to replace the hunt.
Every year since, bird enthusiasts have participated in this citizen-science program to conduct a bird census in early winter, helping researchers plot population trends, distribution and migratory patterns.
Audubon officials say the information is vital for conservation: Both long-term and short-term local trends in bird populations can point to an environmental threat like groundwater contamination or improper use of pesticides.
For Pittsburg birders Liz Mangile and Mavis Benner, it’s a chance to enjoy nature with like-minded individuals.
For others, like Iowa resident Jeff Nichols, it’s a chance to spot a species that they mentally file away, much like sports enthusiasts do with game statistics. He is so enthused that Thursday’s count was the seventh of eight in the region he will participate in this year.
“I searched the Internet to find this one,” he said before heading out.
Defining the territory
Group leader Steve Ford, a biology professor at Pittsburg State University, got the task under way by handing out maps to each team of birders. Each team was to travel the back roads of Cherokee County by car — or, when desired, on foot — to conduct the counts.
“Years ago, I divided the area into six sections,” Ford said, pointing to a 15-mile circle that spans land west of the junction of Kansas highways 102 and 7. “We divide up, and everyone gets a section.”
The sections encompass the mine-camp settlements of Roseland, Carona and West Mineral.
“There are many old strip pits in the area, and I tried to divide it so there is at least some of that habitat in each section,” said Ford.
The dedication of birders to the yearly count sometimes surprises Ford, who recalled a Christmas Bird Count of 10 or 12 years ago.
“The roads were so icy it was hard to keep the car on the road,” he said. “I came on the outside chance that one or two folks would show up, and there were four or five here. Then four or five showed up a bit later. They are die-hard birders.”
Birds of a feather
This year, Ford and his wife, Cindy, an associate professor of biology at PSU, teamed up to drive the eastern-most section, with Steve driving and Cindy armed with a pair of binoculars, a notepad, and a field guide for bird identification.
Before starting, she took notes with a scientist’s precision on the time, the date, the weather, and then announced, “We’re ready.”
The first stop was alongside a yard of a home where the pair took note of ground-feeding juncos that darted about under mature trees, while a couple of red-bellied woodpeckers hunted for insects on their massive trunks and starlings perched on telephone wires above.
“Pretty routine stuff,” Cindy said, as she noted each species.
Later, along a railroad track bordered by a hedgerow and a farm field, the pair hit pay dirt when they spotted eight collared doves — an exciting moment as they are a non-native species originally more comfortable in warmer climes.
On the lookout
John Hartley, of Pittsburg, said they can bank on seeing a few bald eagles each year, and the group looks forward to sightings of rough-legged hawks, too.
Larry Herbert, of Joplin, joins the group most years and recalled years when they saw turkey vultures — an unusual sighting in January as they are migratory — as well as prairie falcons and merlins.
This year he was hoping to show a friend, Margaret Johnson, a Harris sparrow, a striking bird found in the winter only in the very middle of the U.S. “She’s from St. Louis, and they don’t have them there,” he said.
Ford noted that in addition to seeing unusual species some years are unusual in what the group does not see.
“Sometimes, for example, you don’t see any rock doves, and that’s unusual,” he said.
Making it count
When the group finished Thursday afternoon, they gathered their notes for tabulation. They will turn in official tallies to the Audubon Society for inclusion in the longest-running database in ornithology. The data is posted on the Christmas Bird Count Web site, where those interested can create tables and graphs with the data reported.
Kelsey Ryan contributed to this report.


In Joplin
Joplin conducted its annual bird count Dec. 20, operating in a 15-mile diameter from the 32nd Street and Duquesne Road intersection. Nine field observers and seven feeder watchers counted 61 species total. Lawrence Herbert, coordinator of the Joplin Christmas Bird Count, said 61 was “somewhat low.” The group usually counts between 60 and 80 species. The European starling was the most counted bird, with 688 sightings.

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