Christmas Bird Counts

By the time the end of the 19^th century rolled around, a tradition had emerged on Christmas day. Many North Americans participated in what they called "side hunts", in which they competed to see how many birds they could kill, regardless of whether they had any use for the carcasses and of whether the birds were beneficial, beautiful, or rare. In December 1900, the U.S. ornithologist Frank Chapman, founder of Bird-Lore (which became Audubon magazine), proposed counting birds on Christmas instead of killing them.

That year, 27 observers took part in the first count in 25 places in the United States and Canada, 15 of them in the northeastern U.S. from Massachusetts to Philadelphia. Since then the counts have been held every winter, usually with increasing numbers of observers. For instance, the 101st count, in the winter of 2000–2001, involved 52,471 people in 1,823 places in 17 countries (but mostly in the U.S. and Canada). During the 113th count (winter 2012–2013), 71,531 people participated in 2,369 locations. 

 

The counts are set up by local bird clubs and Audubon societies. For three weeks each year (14 December to 5 January) tens of thousands of birders head out to conduct the CBC. These counts are cooperative efforts to get the best count of birds in a single 15-mile diameter circle. The circle is loosely associated with a park, town, or part of a city and the same circle is used each year. Volunteer birders assemble and are divided into teams and are assigned a segment of the count circle to spend as much of the day as it takes to cover that area and count all the birds of each species that they find. The Bend Christmas Count was last Sunday and the Madras Christmas count was yesterday. I usually try to do two or three counts in the local area. Some of the Oregon counts are very remote such as the one held at the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in South East Oregon.  This year we are not finding large numbers of birds but species counts remain high.  

Barrow's Goldeneye pair found on the Madras Christmas Bird Count

 

Here is the remaining birds to list for this year before school ends. The list will continue starting in January, and now the challenge is on, as I try to find the less common birds and the specialty birds from the South West. Some of them of course will be common birds for that area but will be new to the list. Have a great Holiday Break and I look forward to continuing Mr Sutherland's Amazing Bird Race in the New Year with lots of cool Birds of the Week.

251 Golden-crowned Sparrow, Pilot Butte, Bend, Oregon

252 Lewis's Woodpecker, Shevlin Park, Bend Oregon, (catchup)

253 Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, Smith Rock State Park, Oregon

254 Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Portland, Oregon

255 Fox Sparrow, Portland, Oregon

256 Pinion Jay, Hatfield Lake, Deschutes County, Oregon

257 Eurasian Wigeon, Basket Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Dallas Oregon

258 Snowy Owl, Dallas, Oregon,

259 Glaucous-winged Gull, Columbia river

260 Bushtit, Tumalo Oregon

261 Western Bluebird, Tumalo, Oregon

262 Northern Shrike, Hatfield Lakes, Bend, Oregon

263 Barrow's Goldeneye, Deschutes River, Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Jefferson County, Oregon

264 Dunlin, Lake Simtustus, Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Jefferson County, Oregon