Annual Audubon Christmas count seeks birders of a feather

WASILLA — They will turn out with binoculars, spotting scopes, cameras and smart phones by the thousands across the United States, all on the hunt for feathers.

The annual Audubon Society Christmas bird count returns to the Matanuska Valley Dec. 20. Data collected in the count — how many and what kind of birds local bird watchers see — will be compiled with that collected in all 50 U.S. states and the provinces and territories of Canada. That information in turn informs peer-reviewed scientific studies of birds and decisions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Volunteers have been holding the annual count since 1979.

Bob Winckler coordinates the local count, which sees about 40 amateur scientists scrambling over sometimes snow-covered fields looking for birds — though he said about half of them will look at birds from the comfort of their own homes.

Counting birds isn’t for the bird-brained. Counters must strategize to avoid counting the same birds twice. Field counters — the local count had 23 leaders in 2014 — drive or hike around looking for birds, and then mark down the number and species they see. Feeder counters count the largest number of a single species they see at any given time, Winckler said.

“People in the field are moving continually so the chances of them double-counting are low,” he said.

Counters also have to be careful in hot-spot areas for certain birds, like the Palmer landfill, which draws numerous bald eagles. And everyone stops counting ravens at noon, Winckler said. Ravens — like so many Mat-Su residents — are commuters.

“The ravens all live in the surrounding mountains,” he said. “The ravens all come in to the shopping centers to eat [garbage] during the day. At night they go back into the mountains.”

The bird count began in 1900 when Frank Chapman — who founded what eventually became Audubon magazine —suggested it as an alternative to competitive bird hunts traditionally conducted on Christmas.

Although it may seem a daunting task, there is a method to the madness. Birders will count the number and species of birds that show up at feeders in a 15-mile-diameter circle centered on the Four Corners intersection at Trunk Road and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. That method will be replicated all over the Western Hemisphere, with 100 count circles in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands, in addition to the American and Canadian circles, for a 2014 total of 2,462 counts.

Valley birders counted 170 bald eagles and 62 Red-breasted Nuthatches last year, record numbers for both species. Matanuska data was combined with numbers from 72,653 observers in North America who counted more than 68 million birds of 2,106 different species.

Local birders have also spotted some unusual trends during a spate of unseasonably warm winters recently. For example, belted kingfishers can be thwarted by frozen creeks and ponds, but with lakes and ponds staying open longer, they’ve stuck around longer, Winckler said. In addition, common murres — a bird that looks a little like a loon — have been spotted on Matanuska Lake, when they ordinarily wouldn’t come in from the ocean. Murres are built for sea life, and can only take flight from water. If a lake they’ve visited freezes, they’re stuck, Winckler said.

“They cannot take off from the land,” he said. “If they hit land, they’re stuck until somebody rescues them, or an eagle gets them. That’s far more likely.”

Because of the high degree of coordination required, the bird count isn’t something people can just show up for, and pre-registration is required. Anyone wishing to help out can pre-register via email by contacting Winckler at msbirder@mtaonline.net, or via phone at 376-8594.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said this event was organized by the local chapter of the National Audubon Society. While the count's data is compiled with others collected by the National Audubon Society, there is no Matanuska-Susitna chapter of the society.