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Sunday, December 26, 2004
Counting is for the Birds
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||
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"There they are!" yelled Bill Lee, of Waterville, frantically from the back seat. "Eight of them!" said Mairs, of Belgrade, pointing to a roof top and protruding telephone wire. Loyce Hayslett, also of Belgrade, quickly jotted down the number and species -- eight rock dove-- on her tally form. The Waterville Christmas Bird Count was officially underway. Just minutes before, the group had narrowly evaded a road-rage confrontation in the Wal-Mart parking lot just up the road. Their suspicious-looking Subaru, with binocular-toting passengers inside, had stopped in front of a row of parked cars. Someone was trying to back out. Another car was just pulling in. Two others waited in line behind them, honking. In the distance, there were a half-dozen ring-billed and herring gulls flying beside an errant grocery cart. The group could only hope that the small pieces of trash and litter on the sand- and salt- speckled pavement would keep the birds occupied while Mairs repositioned the vehicle for safer viewing. Last Sunday, Mairs, Hayslett and Lee were taking part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, an event organized each year by the National Audubon Society. The intent is to count birds on the same day each year -- around Christmas time -- then use that data to analyze overall trends, patterns and changes in bird populations. This means that every bird seen in one's region must be counted, so defensive driving, poignant identification skills and sharp eyes are a must. A good sense of humor is a bonus. 100 YEARS AND COUNTING The Christmas Bird Count involves 55,000 volunteers from all 50 states, every Canadian province and parts of Central and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies and the Pacific Islands. Counts are open to birders of all skill levels, and this year, about 2,000 individual counts are scheduled to take place between December 14, 2004 and January 5, 2005. During last year's count -- the 104th-- an amazing 63 million birds were counted in the Western hemisphere. The first count took place in 1900, when 27 Audubon conservationists, led by famed ornithologist and writer Frank Chapman, began counting birds instead of shooting them as part of a new Christmas tradition. Chapman had proposed to identify, count and record all the birds they saw, founding what some now consider to be the world's most significant citizen-based conservation effort. To this day, each Bird Count group still has a designated circle 15 miles in diameter, where they try to cover as much ground as possible to spot (or hear) birds within a 24-hour calendar day. Counts are held on the same day each year for consistency. As with many outdoor activities, a little friendly competition is inevitable -- and part of the fun. Mairs, Hayslett and Lee had been assigned to a portion of the Waterville Count Circle, which centers around the Colby College campus on Mayflower Hill. Their territory was the largely urban and heavily developed area of Waterville west of the Kennebec River, stretching to the I-95 corridor and a little beyond, into Oakland. When the river is open and free of ice, it can be one of the most productive birding areas in town. The group decided to head there next. In order to better see the birds on the Waterville side of the river, however, it was necessary to cross into Winslow, where another group was counting. "Enemy territory," Lee warned. When they arrived at the Ft. Halifax parking lot, beside the Sebasticook River where it washes into the Kennebec, the Winslow-count group was already there, unloading their spotting scopes and bird books. "Those guys have been known to throw rocks at the birds to get them on their side of the river. Let's get out and harass them a little bit," joked Lee, while the group jotted down sightings of a variety of ducks: blacks, mallards, common goldeneyes, Barrow's goldeneyes and common mergansers. Lee, an enthusiastic birdwatcher and attorney from Waterville, was the first of the group to participate in the counts. He started about ten years ago. He and Mairs have always done them together, give or take a year or two. "I learn something from Don every year. That's what I like about going with him. He knows about everything," Lee said. Besides being a truly skilled bird watcher, Mairs, now retired, is also a trained entomologist and a former fisheries biologist. In the past, he has worked for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture. Though he would be the last to say so, he can identify just about anything that lives in Maine's woods and waters. Over the course of the day, he identified animal and bird tracks, bird songs, trees and various species of shrubs and brush -- along with nearly every bird the group saw and heard. He has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of bird identification features and loves to share them with others -- making him an invaluable asset to the team. Hayslett joined the group three years ago. This year she volunteered to be the scribe, but her sharp eye spied the group's first bald eagle perched on a limb in a maple tree beside the Kennebec River, on lower Water Street near the Sewage Treatment Plant. Water Street, not withstanding its heavy development, is usually an excellent area to spot birds during the count, said Lee. The group drives and walks this road every year. The Kennebec River, plentiful backyard bird feeders and edge habitat make it attractive to birds of all kinds. Beside one house, the trio spotted a number of chickadees, nuthatches, a cardinal, a stately red-tailed hawk, as well as hairy and downy woodpeckers -- most of which are common to Maine's wintertime woods. But nearby, pecking away at a snag on a tall maple tree, Lee saw some movement. He raised his binoculars and deftly adjusted his focus knob. "Hey, I think I've got a red-bellied woodpecker! Yes, it is! Come over, I'll show you," Lee called out from beside the road. The red-bellied woodpecker was perhaps the most unusual species of the day, said Mairs. They're largely a southern, or mid-Atlantic bird, though there have been numerous sightings in Maine this season. According to Bill Hancock, a coordinator for Maine Audubon, and a veteran of nearly 25 years of Christmas Bird Counts, this woodpecker is a new species to Maine. "Some species have been pushing north. Fifteen years ago, red-bellied woodpeckers were just beginning to appear in Connecticut. Since then, they've been moving up through New England, to the point where they counted 1,200 in Connecticut just last year," he said. LOOKING FOR TRENDS Unusual sightings can sometimes indicate the start of trends in the environment, and in bird populations. "Bird numbers are elastic. They expand and contract over time. They're not permanent. Lots of things effect them: changes in landscape, forest cover, development, increased sea level, temperature. You can definitely discern trends over time, see the ebb and flow of some species," Hancock added. Herb Wilson is a biology professor who, together with his wife Bets Brown, organizes and compiles the Waterville Bird Count each year. Like all birdwatchers, he loves to hear about unusual sightings, but acknowledges that the real significance of the counts is in identifying trends. "The bird count helps you see big patterns; you know, say for example there's 300 Redpolls one year, then 500 the next, that doesn't tell you much. But if there's 300 one year and 3,000,000 the next, now you're learned something," he said. Examples of the count's effectiveness are numerous. In the 1980s, bird count data revealed the decline of wintering populations of black ducks, and conservation measures were put into effect to reduce hunting pressure. The opposite was true with wild turkeys. Their booming populations have been well documented by the bird counts, and hunting seasons have since been established in Maine. Habitat changes also effect the habits of birds -- and bird watchers. Today, Mairs, Lee and Hayslett look for birds in the parking lots of movie theaters, Wal-Mart stores and around housing and business developments; places they remember as farms just 50 years ago. Behind the new cinemas in Waterville, on Kennedy Memorial Drive, Mairs played a CD of an owl hooting on portable speakers, hoping to attract interesting bird species to the call. But the sounds could scarcely be heard over the rattling of machine guns on-screen inside one of the theaters, across the parking lot. While it's unlikely to find deep woods species in a spot like this, other birds have moved in to take their place. Mairs remembers when open town dumps were prime gull habitat, leading to prolific numbers and unusual species of gulls each year in Maine. In recent years, though, many of these dumps have been closed or capped, eliminating the gull's primary source of food. Gull numbers have since dropped significantly in count tallies. Like the birds, Maine birdwatchers have always been a flexible bunch. They persevere, through good weather and bad. Near the end of the day, the group had braved downtown traffic, icy roads, below-freezing temperatures and had ventured into hostile enemy territory in Winslow. They tallied a total of 29 species and 838 birds -- not bad for a little over eight hours of bird watching on a cold winter's day in Maine. Dave Sherwood -- 621-5648 dsherwood@centralmaine.com
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