In the coming weeks, people around the world will venture out into their backyards, city parks, fields, ponds, lakes, and nearby forests to count the number of birds flying around participating in Audubon's Christmas Bird Count. 115+ years ago, people would relax after the Christmas festivities by shooting as many birds as they could. Big, small, colorful, drab, good to eat or just something in your backyard- didn’t matter. Shoot 'em and count 'em!
In 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman proposed that people should go out and count the birds instead of shoot them! An idea that came too late to stem the decline of species such as the Passenger Pigeon or Carolina Parakeet, but one that started the longest running citizen science project in the U.S.
In 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman proposed that people should go out and count the birds instead of shoot them! An idea that came too late to stem the decline of species such as the Passenger Pigeon or Carolina Parakeet, but one that started the longest running citizen science project in the U.S.
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| Savannah Sparrow from TXCS CBC 2012 |
The first “Count” in 1900 consisted of 27 counters spread across 25 count areas. In the 2012/2013 Count, 71,000+ people in 2,369 count circles participated from Nome, Alaska to Dededo, Guam, to Manaus, Brazil, to Bermuda, to Newfoundland. (So no complaining about a little rain for our count!) Since it’s inception, a few standards and practices have been implemented to make this a truly useful and reproducible event. Each CBC is conducted within a 15 mile-diameter count circle during a prescribed 24hr period. Each count circle is typically subdivided into different regions and teams of counters go into the field and bird for as long as they can- usually most of the day. Some intrepid adventurers will get up very pre-dawn to get out and search around for owls and such. Others prefer to sleep a little more! And at the end of the day, we finish up with a CBC Countdown- where all of the teams get together and tally our sightings up together.
Importance of CBC
So why do we do all this? Is it just to get out in and get some exercise in the middle of the winter? Go explore our local area and see its natural highlights? Is it solely to enjoy the pot-luck at the Countdown dinner? We’ll each have our own reason for getting up before dawn and making our way outside on a perfectly good winter sleeping morning. But whatever it is, our sightings and efforts combine for a significant scientific and birding resource for identifying population trends, wintering locations, and habitat conditions.
Audubon has compiled a Top10 list of things the CBC has taught us- it includes success stories such as the recovery of Peregrine Falcons and Bald Eagles, migration of hummingbirds and House Finches, and the decline of Sage-grouse and other prairie specialists. This data helps groups like Audubon see trends and prioritize policy pushes- like the current Climate Change Report- and target conservation efforts where they are most urgent.
Audubon has compiled a Top10 list of things the CBC has taught us- it includes success stories such as the recovery of Peregrine Falcons and Bald Eagles, migration of hummingbirds and House Finches, and the decline of Sage-grouse and other prairie specialists. This data helps groups like Audubon see trends and prioritize policy pushes- like the current Climate Change Report- and target conservation efforts where they are most urgent.
It’s also a great way to learn about habitat and the birds in your local community. With the count circle subdivided into territories, teams can focus on finding habitats and hotspots in a small area. While much of the best habitat is on private land, we’ve been fortunate to have lots of good interactions with land owners that allow us CBC access to their lands. We’re still looking for more, so if you know someone with a big patch of land- or even just a couple acres of fields- that's in the count circle, put us in contact with them!
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| And there's cats if you're lucky! |
TXCS Recent details
So this brings us to our local CBC. Our count will take place on SUNDAY 14DECEMBER2014 and is co-sponsored by the Rio Brazos Audubon Society and the Brazos Valley Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists. Our count circle is centered near A&M Consolidated High School and covers some diverse habitat- riparian areas of the city parks, the Brazos bottoms area by Lick Creek Park, backyard feeders, several small lakes, and a couple of large grassy areas or turf farms.
See this MAP for more details.
Over the past seven years, we’ve been averaging 111 species (high: 119, low: 103) on 100hrs of effort (high: 142.25, low: 83.75) each year. We’ve also dug up some rarities along the way:
Notables:
o American Bittern, Western Sandpiper (2013)
o Roseate Spoonbill, Long-billed Dowitcher, Ross’s Goose (2012)
o Lapland Longspur (2011-2012)
o Cinnamon Teal, White-tailed Hawk (2011)
o Redhead, Common Goldeneye (2010)
o Short-eared Owl, Pyrrhuloxia, Black-and-White Warbler (2009)
o Gray Catbird (2007-2009)
o Prairie Warbler, Ash-throated flycatcher (2007)
There have been some good bird happenings around the state recently, particularly with western species turning up in east Texas:
• Acorn Woodpecker in Bolivar
• American Tree Sparrows in Jefferson County
• Great Kiskadee in Williamson County
• Mountain Bluebird near Beaumont
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| Long-tailed Duck showed up at the Gibbons Creek CBC in 2013 |
So what do we need to make this CBC work?
We already have a great compiler in Betty V! She handles all of the official mumbo jumbo and deals with the State Compiler.
Beyond that, we need people! And when I say people, I mean people! Not just birders, but people can drive, people that can spot birds on a wire, people that can write down what we’ve seen, and people that can keep watching while the group stares through their binoculars at some little brown bird low in the vegetation.
If you can’t make it out, and you live in the count circle, you can still contribute! We need people to keep an eye on their feeders too. You never know when a Pine Siskin or a Red-breasted Nuthatch is going to show up! Remember, you have to be in the count circle for your sightings to be admissible! MAP
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If you would like to participate either on a team or from your backyard feeder, please contact Betty at her email or send RBAS an email at riobrazosaudubon AT gmail.com before the organizational meeting. We’ll have the organization meeting at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History 10DECEMBER2014 for groups to meet, coordinate, and generally get organized.
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What to expect? Ebird list
As a quick an dirty look at what we usually get, I’ve broken down the Ebird list for Brazos County for the last 10 Decembers into "Expected", "Unusual", and “Gasp!”. Now this list is the whole county- including Lake Bryan and the agriculture areas in the south part of the county that aren’t covered by the CBC count circle, so there are a few more birds here than what we normally see in the count circle. But this will give us a primer on what to expect.
| Expected | Little Unusual | "Gasp!" | ||
| Snow Goose | Black-bellied Whistling-Duck | Swan Goose (Domestic type) | ||
| Wood Duck | Greater White-fronted Goose | Ross's Goose | ||
| Gadwall | Canada Goose | Cinnamon Teal | ||
| American Wigeon | Muscovy Duck (Domestic type) | Hooded Merganser | ||
| Mallard | Mallard (Domestic type) | Red-breasted Merganser | ||
| Northern Shoveler | Blue-winged Teal | American Bittern | ||
| Northern Pintail | Common Goldeneye | Cattle Egret | ||
| Green-winged Teal | American White Pelican | Green Heron | ||
| Redhead | Sora | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | ||
| Ring-necked Duck | Common Gallinule | Swainson's Hawk | ||
| Lesser Scaup | Least Sandpiper | Spotted Sandpiper | ||
| Bufflehead | Wilson's Snipe | Solitary Sandpiper | ||
| Ruddy Duck | Forster's Tern | Lesser Yellowlegs | ||
| Pied-billed Grebe | Greater Roadrunner | Long-billed Curlew | ||
| Neotropic Cormorant | Eastern Screech-Owl | Western Sandpiper | ||
| Double-crested Cormorant | Scissor-tailed Flycatcher | Long-billed Dowitcher | ||
| Great Blue Heron | White-eyed Vireo | American Woodcock | ||
| Great Egret | Winter Wren | Ring-billed Gull | ||
| Black Vulture | Sedge Wren | Herring Gull | ||
| Turkey Vulture | Bewick's Wren | Common Ground-Dove | ||
| Northern Harrier | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | Anna's Hummingbird | ||
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | Sprague's Pipit | Red-headed Woodpecker | ||
| Cooper's Hawk | Lark Sparrow | Merlin | ||
| Bald Eagle | Le Conte's Sparrow | Peregrine Falcon | ||
| Red-shouldered Hawk | Western Meadowlark | Monk Parakeet | ||
| Red-tailed Hawk | Pine Siskin | Say's Phoebe | ||
| American Coot | Count = 26 | Ash-throated Flycatcher | ||
| Sandhill Crane | Horned Lark | |||
| Killdeer | Lapland Longspur | |||
| Greater Yellowlegs | Chestnut-collared Longspur | |||
| Rock Pigeon | McCown's Longspur | |||
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | Black-and-white Warbler | |||
| Inca Dove | Common Yellowthroat | |||
| White-winged Dove | Wilson's Warbler | |||
| Mourning Dove | Clay-colored Sparrow | |||
| Great Horned Owl | Lark Bunting | |||
| Barred Owl | Grasshopper Sparrow | |||
| Rufous Hummingbird | Fox Sparrow | |||
| Belted Kingfisher | Pyrrhuloxia | |||
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | Rusty Blackbird | |||
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Brewer's Blackbird | |||
| Downy Woodpecker | Purple Finch | |||
| Northern Flicker | Count = 42 | |||
| Pileated Woodpecker | ||||
| Crested Caracara | ||||
| American Kestrel | ||||
| Eastern Phoebe | ||||
| Loggerhead Shrike | ||||
| Blue-headed Vireo | ||||
| Blue Jay | ||||
| American Crow | ||||
| Cave Swallow | ||||
| Carolina Chickadee | ||||
| Tufted Titmouse | ||||
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | ||||
| Brown Creeper | ||||
| House Wren | ||||
| Marsh Wren | ||||
| Carolina Wren | ||||
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | ||||
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | ||||
| Eastern Bluebird | ||||
| Hermit Thrush | ||||
| American Robin | ||||
| Brown Thrasher | ||||
| Northern Mockingbird | ||||
| European Starling | ||||
| American Pipit | ||||
| Cedar Waxwing | ||||
| Orange-crowned Warbler | ||||
| Pine Warbler | ||||
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | ||||
| Spotted Towhee | ||||
| Eastern Towhee | ||||
| Chipping Sparrow | ||||
| Field Sparrow | ||||
| Vesper Sparrow | ||||
| Savannah Sparrow | ||||
| Song Sparrow | ||||
| Lincoln's Sparrow | ||||
| Swamp Sparrow | ||||
| White-throated Sparrow | ||||
| Harris's Sparrow | ||||
| White-crowned Sparrow | ||||
| Dark-eyed Junco | ||||
| Northern Cardinal | ||||
| Red-winged Blackbird | ||||
| Eastern Meadowlark | ||||
| Common Grackle | ||||
| Great-tailed Grackle | ||||
| Brown-headed Cowbird | ||||
| House Finch | ||||
| American Goldfinch | ||||
| House Sparrow | ||||
| Count = 94 |
There are other CBCs running in the area if you aren't able to make College Station's, including Gibbons Creek (30DECEMBER) and Huntsville (03JANUARY). Check out Houston Audubon's Big CBC List for ones near (or far from) you!
These measurements do not apply in the case of a backyard subdivision. Here, there are actually no minimum size requirements. Rather, the site is required to meet the standard in town planning for SUBDIVIDING YOUR BACKYARD.
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