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Whatever the climate—rain, snow, wind, or clear sunny skies—if it’s someday between December 14 and January 5, birders are getting up early throughout your complete Western hemisphere to depend birds for the Audubon Christmas Chicken Depend (CBC). With a century of historical past behind this depend, the annual Audubon CBC is an important custom that each brings folks collectively and contributes useful knowledge to science.
From a modest beginning one Christmas in 1900 when ornithologist Frank M. Chapman proposed counting birds as a substitute for searching them, after greater than 100 years, the annual occasion has achieved a lifetime of its personal. And with counts spanning the hemisphere from Canada and america to Panama, Colombia, and past, there’s a circle for any birder to affix. After three years of working at Audubon, I used to be excited to lastly take part as a novice birder this season.
Take a tour of those counts from the 124th Audubon CBC starting from coastal Texas to the savannahs and forests of Colombia and again to the Japanese Seaboard.
Texas, USA
With 3,359 miles of coast to cowl and over 100 years of lively stewardship, Audubon Texas takes pleasure in its strong coastal conservation programs. Proper in the midst of the Texas coast is the Matagorda County circle—an space so vital to birds, the very best birders within the state convene to depend this circle every year. For Alexis Baldera, Audubon Texas coastal program supervisor, this circle represents the significance of the area each to the birds and the native communities that depend on it—in addition to the necessity to proceed our work to guard it. Just like earlier years, members recognized 225 species all through the day (together with the Franklin’s Gull, Wilson’s Plover, and extra) throughout the total circle and 140 species in one of many subsections alone. Commenting on the sheer variety of habitat coated within the Mad Island Marsh CBC in Matagorda, Richard Gibbons, Audubon Texas director of conservation, famous, “[w]e had observers for…[a] coastal mixture of habitats: seashore, dunes, flats, wetlands, marine, and the final stretch of one in all Texas’s most beloved rivers, the Colorado.” Inland on the Hagerman Nationwide Wildlife Refuge Depend simply outdoors of Dallas, Audubon senior social media coordinator Gabrielle Saleh hiked by means of tall grasses within the refuge to depend a number of LeConte’s Sparrows. She additionally noticed waterfowl galore and located a flock of Rusty Blackbirds at a later depend on the Village Creek Drying Beds in Arlington, Texas. “I’ve been keen about birds since I used to be a toddler—and becoming a member of Audubon’s Christmas Chicken Counts is a means for me to assist defend the birds I really like so dearly and to ensure they’re round for generations after mine,” stated Saleh. “That is my second time becoming a member of a depend, and I’m excited to make this a practice for every winter.”
Florida, USA
In one other giant and biome-diverse state, Florida’s CBCs defy the stereotype of a chilly winter depend with typically extra temperate climate. Within the panhandle, Brian Cammarano, a part of Florida’s coastal conservation workforce, led a CBC for the primary time in Bay County. There, volunteers noticed a number of uncommon birds, together with a Vermilion Flycatcher and a Western Kingbird. On being a primary time chief, Cammarano remarked, “[a]n side that I at all times discover so fascinating is how depend leaders should create these makeshift groups made up of numerous members of all totally different ability units and backgrounds so as to maximize protection inside the depend circle.” On the different finish of the state in West Palm Seaside, birder and circle compiler Chuck Weber of Audubon Everglades views the annual depend as a essential device with which to gauge the altering panorama of his personal yard—particularly when uncommon phenomena happen. “We’ve seen unbelievable modifications in our personal depend circle. Our space has skilled phenomenal progress in inhabitants and concrete improvement, so it’s necessary to proceed to watch what’s occurring right here.”
Meta, Colombia
Within the huge japanese plains of Meta, Colombia, Dr. Loreta Rosselli led the coordination of the CBC within the Triángulo del Puma. This depend featured two giants of the CBC world in Colombia: Rosselli and her husband Dr. Gary Stiles. In actual fact, they launched the primary CBC to Colombia greater than 30 years in the past in Bogotá. They’ve additionally been main the CBC on the Triángulo del Puma for the previous 3 years and take part within the totally different biodiversity monitoring workouts being carried out within the area. As a conservation initiative, the Triángulo del Puma goals to guard its wealthy ecosystems comprising three personal pure reserves (Yurumí, La Reseda and El Amparo) to make sure the preservation and mobility of the broader space’s wildlife. In response to Pedro Camargo, biologist for Audubon Americas and participant of this depend, because of the diversified funding sources for the Triángulo de Puma, the initiative has managed each to deliver recognition to the biodiversity of the area and consciousness to the threats confronted by these necessary ecosystems, together with the enlargement of agro-industrial pursuits like palm oil, sugar cane, and timber. The day of the depend, Rosselli led the group by means of the La Reseda Reserve, which encompasses savannah and each tropical forests and morichal forests—a forest of palm timber that solely develop and thrive in a wetland setting. They noticed a complete of 82 species, together with standout species just like the White-chinned Jacamar and Nice Potoo. They even encountered a number of species of anteaters.
Connecticut, USA
On a non-public farm in Connecticut, the climate was chilly and gloomy for this Birdability-sponsored chicken depend. Although it rained intermittently, the birders on this circle have been in a golf cart, serving to immensely not solely with the rain however with the accessibility of the depend total. For volunteers like Barbara Seith who’ve particular mobility points, patch birding, birding by automobile, and, on this occasion, birding by golf cart enable her to take part with out compromising her well-being. Finally, the particular wants of every birder decide the right way to make a particular depend extra accessible. “What defines accessible goes to be distinctive to the entry wants of the person. What’s going to make one thing work for somebody like me is totally different from what’s going to work for Barbara or for another person with different wants,” stated Cat Fribley, govt director of Birdability. Counting over 200 birds and 34 totally different species—together with a stunning Widespread Goldeneye—Seith considers taking part as a part of her responsibility as a birder. “The Christmas Chicken Depend has been occurring for therefore lengthy. It’s necessary to carry onto that historic development info as a lot as we are able to,” she stated. “It helps you’re feeling such as you’re part of the group.”
New York, USA
Earlier than heading to Lengthy Island, I bundled myself up in layers. This was my first Christmas Chicken Depend and I needed to be ready for the chilly climate. I met up with depend leaders Roxana Saravia and Julie Nelsen—each of whom work out of Audubon’s Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Center (TRSAC)—at Stillwell Woods Park, {a partially} wooded space with trails. The volunteers for the Christmas Chicken Depend with TRSAC this yr have been a mixture of new folks and acquainted faces, together with members who not too long ago joined their volunteer workforce, returning volunteers, and members of their Teen Conservation Ambassador group. Regardless of the chilly and an unexpected coincidence with a canine obedience coaching, we counted over 100 birds and 14 totally different species—together with fan favourite Cedar Waxwings and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. For Roxana, the annual depend helps join their group collectively even throughout lower than supreme birding climate: “The CBC will get folks outside throughout the winter and encourages them to study extra concerning the great world of birds.” Sharing the enjoyment of birds was the cherry on high of a profitable morning birding for science.
Whether or not you’re on the lookout for a birding problem otherwise you need to commune with different bird-loving of us, Audubon Christmas Chicken Depend welcomes all to affix in, don their group science hat, and contribute some essential knowledge for avian scientists. As Audubon Florida’s first-time depend chief Brian Cammarano says, “CBCs deliver communities collectively! Easy as that.”
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