Coming Together For the Birds
By Carter Strope, GEAS Guest Blogger
For more than a century volunteers across the Western Hemisphere have worked together each winter to conduct bird censuses as part of the Audubon Society-led project known as the Christmas Bird Count or CBC. 119 years after the first year of counts in 1900, I participated in my first CBCs during the winter of 2019-2020.
Finding Birds In Strange Places
In 2019/2020 I participated in three counts: the Boise, Nampa/Caldwell, and Bruneau CBCs. Each of those counts took me, a bright-eyed but green birder, to places I never would have imagined when I started birding. That December and January, I spent my Saturdays trekking around wastewater treatment plants, cemeteries, and everywhere in between. While these aren’t the kinds of places where you’re likely to find me, or many other birders, on a family picnic, they can be fantastic places to find birds. Wastewater treatment plants and landfills are often among the best places to look for gulls in the winter and the conifers at cemeteries have a reputation for holding finches like Red Crossbills and Pine Siskins all of which makes these unusual locations key stops for any CBC.
Cold, Wet, Frost and Fog
It's more than just the strange locations that make each CBC extraordinary. Each year volunteers brave unpredictable winter conditions and unexpected challenges to conduct counts. Almost invariably, at least here in Idaho, that involves putting up with the cold and, occasionally, getting a little wet. In 2020 it seemed every count I participated in was more than a little unusual. Beyond the masks and social distancing that went into that year’s counts, the Boise CBC was bitterly cold and blanketed in layers of frost and fog that tested the determination of everyone out looking for birds in the early morning.
Birding at the Boise WaterShed Wastewater Treatment Plant on the 2019 Boise CBC by Lucian Davis
Other years have brought rain, snow, or else birds that just didn’t seem to cooperate as usual. These challenges, however, are just as much a part of the count as the triumphs, and I have learned to look back on the CBCs where the days felt just little longer or a little harder with fondness and look forward to whatever obstacles the next year’s counts will bring.
It’s Special to Come Together
I could write for hours about the quirks of being a CBC participant, but what makes each CBC truly special to me, and so many others, are the ways in which they can bring local birding communities together. Every count area is divided into several zones, each of which is covered by a team of birders. Whether your count team or zone is the same each year or constantly changing, coming together with a group of dedicated birders to turn over every corner of your zone and share in the wins and losses of that year’s CBC is always rewarding.
To top off the camaraderie of each count there is often an end of day event, after the sun has set, where members of all the different teams come together to escape the cold, get something to eat, and tally the day’s finds for an unofficial count. Without fail there are plenty of laughs to be had, great stories all around, and a hint of healthy competition over who had the count’s best find. It’s a wonderful thing to see so many people come together. in the name of community science and to enjoy the birds and each other. I never know what is going to make a count special or unique but, unfailingly, by the end of the day they are. I am impatiently looking forward to this year’s counts in just over a month’s time and hope to see many of you out there on count day.
Wild Turkey Surrounded by Hoarfrost on the 2020 Boise CBC by Carter Strope
2023 Christmas Bird Count
There will be four count days in southwest Idaho in 2023; Boise December 16, Garden Valley December 20, Nampa December 23 and Bruneau December 30. Get the details and learn how to participate.
In Cascade, counts are December 12-16, and McCall (contact Matt Dresser) is December 12-17.