Whether counting chickadees at home or journeying into conservation lands in search of an endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, dozens of people in the Cape Fear region will join tens of thousands of volunteers across the Western Hemisphere for the 115th year of the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count Dec. 14 through Jan. 5.
The 15-mile bird count circle centered in Monkey Junction is one of few groups in the country to report more than 150 species each year, said Wilmington circle compiler Sam Cooper. For more than 10 years, Cooper has organized between 25 and 45 volunteers into small parties, each covering a specific area during a time slot between dawn and dusk, for the Wilmington circle. An annual volunteer since he was a teenager, Cooper also participates in a handful of other local bird count circles each year. He said the annual citizen science survey offers an opportunity for birders of all levels of interest and experience to contribute to a database that informs national conservation efforts.
“You can be sedentary and do your count in your yard or your neighborhood, or you can race around and try to go to all the different habitats,” Cooper said.
The Holly Shelter & Lea-Hutaff Island circle, which includes the north end of Wrightsville Beach, is only four years old but already boasts more than 100 reported species each year. Compiler Carson Wood said he expects to report more than 120 species this year, from Bachman’s sparrows in Holly Shelter Game Land to the plovers, gulls and terns around Masons Inlet. Like Cooper, Wood plans to participate in six or seven counts this year, including one in New York.
Curtis Smalling, Audubon North Carolina director of land bird conservation, attributed the success of the count to dedicated volunteers like Cooper and Wood.
“It’s amazing it’s been so long-running and so successful,” Smalling said. “People are so passionate about it. We’ve got folks who have worked as compilers for decades and folks who help with multiple counts every year.”
A 2013 Audubon report used 30 years of Christmas Bird Count data to estimate how climate changes in important bird habitats could impact 588 species. Smalling said data collected during the 2014 count will be used to test predicted changes in bird behavior and habitat use, especially in areas expected to remain important in the lives of threatened birds, including coastal North Carolina.
Data collected in each circle is reported to the National Audubon Society, which vets and qualifies the numbers before organizing final results into spreadsheets and condensing it into summaries. Smalling said data collected during the 2014 count will be available by late March or early April.
The Holly Shelter & Lea-Hutaff count will take place Dec. 14. The Wilmington count will take place Jan. 3. To find the contact information for a compiler of a count near you, visit http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count
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