The end of 2014 marks the 115th year of the Christmas Bird Count; an organized census of local birds across North America that began in December 1900. Ornithologist Frank Chapman, opposed to the "Christmas Side Hunt" tradition of his time, suggested that rather than shooting all the birds for sport, people could simply count them. His idea seemed catching, for what started as 27 observers in a handful of locations has grown to tens of thousands of citizen scientists all over the US and Canada. The idea is simple; from December 14th to January 5th, organizers assemble groups of volunteer birders to identify and count all birds seen within a specified 15 mile diameter wide count circle. Observers are broken into small teams and follow predetermined routes within the count circle, including watching feeders. Data is compiled at the end of the day during a pot luck and submitted to the National Audubon Society, where it is archived and available for public use. This long term data provides valuable insights into regional trends of bird populations, collected by the public for free. I was the boat driver for a pelagic Christmas bird count in Monterey one year, and today is the count for Fairbanks. Casey and I were too late to sign up this time, so for fun I compiled a list of birds we've seen or heard from around the neighborhood so far.
Willow Ptarmigan
Great Horned Owl (call)
Boreal Owl (call)
Hairy Woodpecker (feeder)
Gray Jay (feeder)
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee (feeder)
Boreal Chickadee (feeder and pictured above)
Pine Grosbeak
Hoary Redpoll
Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + 1.4x, ISO-1000 f/5.6 @ 1/400 sec
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