Bird watchers contribute to citizen science during annual tally
By Alex Wilson 12/24/2009
Bird enthusiasts in Ventura County and across the planet are teaming up for one of the largest outdoor events of the year.
The Christmas Bird Count is sponsored by the Audubon Society, and is now in its 110th year.
The Ventura Chapter will fan out across western Ventura County on Saturday, Jan. 2 and the Conejo Valley Chapter heads out in the eastern part of the county on Sunday, Jan. 3.
Karl Krause compiles statistics for the Ventura Chapter, and says the Christmas Bird Count started as an alternative to holiday hunting competitions that were popular around 100 years ago.
“People went out and saw how many birds they could shoot around Christmastime, and then it turned into, ‘Lets go out and see how many birds we can just see,’ ” says Krause. “It’s become the longest-running winter census or survey of birds in the United States.”
The local bird counts have been happening for more than 30 years, and bird watchers have documented changes over that time in the types of species and the number of specimens because of land development and climate change.
“One of the things we’ve seen recently is the movement of some species further north at the same time each winter, or the decline of some species overall,” says Krause. “Recently, we’ve seen some species that we never saw before.
One of those is the barn swallow, which just in the last few years started showing up.”
The Christmas Bird Count is a social event since they look for birds in teams and then meet up for dinner. “After we’ve eaten, we go through our list of birds, and everyone shouts out what they’ve seen. So we get a preliminary count that day of how many species we’ve seen, and that’s always an exciting, fun event,” says Krause. “Everybody waits till the last on the birds that are most unusual that they’ve seen, so they bask in the glory of finding a wonderful bird.”
The Christmas Bird Count has proven over time that Ventura County is a premier spot for bird watching. “We have a lot of different habitat here, which helps, and fairly mild weather, so we have a lot of species that winter here,” says Krause. “Overall, we’re usually in the top 20 counts.”
Krause says bird watching has also led him to discover parts of the county he might have overlooked before. “I soon found out there’s a value in going to dumps and sewer plants and mud flats, and the kind of places I once thought were undesirable that turned out to be very interesting in terms of the birds you see,” says Krause.
Conejo Valley Audubon Society President Carol Langford says birds are interesting creatures for many reasons. “They are fascinating, they fly, they’re beautiful, they migrate from place to place, they have different lifestyles than people tend to,” says Langford.
Both local chapters have internet Web sites with more information on how to participate. The addresses are www.conejovalleyaudubon.org and www.venturaaudubon.org.
Langford says bird watching groups are friendly and welcome newcomers. “We encourage others to join us, and we appreciate the opportunity to participate in this 110-year-old tradition of ordinary citizens contributing to the scientific knowledge of birds,” says Langford.
Both groups organize many other outings throughout the year, and regular meetings for bird watchers. The Conejo Valley Chapter meets every first Monday of the month at the Western Foundation of Vertebrae Zoology in Camarillo, and the Jan. 4 meeting features a prominent biologist studying California condors.
Please contact Outdoor Observer with details and contact information about environmental events, volunteer opportunities and adventure sports at outdoors@vcreporter.com.
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