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RateAvian experts take part in annual Christmas Bird Count
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By Jim Planck
COXSACKIE — Birdwatchers in Greene County joined with birders throughout the nation recently to participate in the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count, an annual event that helps track specie numbers, uncommon winter visitors, and geographic rarities.
Longtime local birder and noted avian expert Richard Guthrie, of New Baltimore, who always takes part in the count, said Thursday that the day offers fun for the participants, and yields important long-term data for those monitoring the health and well being of bird species.
“It’s a snapshot,” said Guthrie. “A lot of valuable knowledge comes out of the long-term accumulation of the data.”
Guthrie said that locally, that data has been growing for some time.
“In Greene County,” said Guthrie, “we are at 48 years and counting, so in two more years will be our 50th count.”
“We’re putting the data together for the ‘moving’ picture,” he said, in reference to being able to view the specie trends over that time period, adding, “and that will be detailed out in our 50th year.”
Ironically, the Christmas Bird Count actually has part of its origin in the destructive outdoor social habits of the very late 1800s, just before the turn of the 20th century.
There was a holiday tradition popular at that time called the Christmas “Side Hunt,” in which sides were chosen and then people would head out with their guns into the fields and woods.
Whichever side brought back the largest pile of birds and animals won.
It was also during this time period when conservation efforts in America were taking hold, including the creation and beginnings of the Audubon Society.
One of the group’s ornithologists, Frank Chapman, was one of those concerned about declining bird populations, so he came up with a way to collect their numbers, spend time in the field, and create a new tradition to offset the concept of the side hunt, all at the same time — the Christmas Bird Count.
Accordingly, on Christmas Day 1900, Chapman proposed his idea, and with 27 other concerned birders, they achieved 25 separate bird counts totalling 90 species, representing areas as diverse as Ontario and California, on that very first Christmas Bird Count.
Chapman, who in 1908 became Curator of Birds at NYC’s American Museum of Natural History, is a true legend in the birdwatching world for his commitment to helping Americans enjoy, observe, and protect birds.
In addition to scholarly works in journals and publications, he wrote almost 20 books and major reports on birds, including his 1895 Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America — which was a standard for the decades prior to the appearance of Roger Tory Peterson’s well known work in 1934, and one of the three books that influenced Peterson in the development of his own industry-changing work.
From Christmas 1900 to Christmas 2008, the tradition has thus been practiced 108 times, although now it is held on a day near, not on, Christmas, in order to allow participants the holiday with family.
Locally, this year’s was held on Dec. 16, and it is conducted each year inside a 15-mile wide circle using Green Lake, in the town of Athens, as its center.
Guthrie said it just touches New Baltimore on the north, runs down to Smith’s Landing and Embought Bay on the south, goes west to about Round Top, and crosses the river east to the Olana area.
Officially, it is known as the Catskill-Coxsackie Count Circle, and Guthrie said other circles include one in Columbia County, at Chatham, another down in the Shawangunk Mountains, by Lake Mohonk, one up in Albany County at DEC’s Five Rivers Center, and one in Dutchess County, at Baird Park.
It is by having the count circles spread across a variety of areas that, cumulatively, the data they provide takes meaning, said Guthrie.
“We had 10 groups go out for the Catskill-Coxsackie Circle,” he said, “which includes all of Catskill, Athens, and Coxsackie, plus many smaller communities, like Kiskatom and Medway.”
Guthrie said that one of his favorites every year is to observe the gulls — noting there is far more to them than just the generalized term “sea gulls,” typically used for Ring-Billed Gulls.
“The Hudson River is a great spot for gulls,” said Guthrie, “and the gulls are a wide variety of different types.”
“There’s Herring Gulls, and Great Black-backed Gulls, and Icelandic Gulls,” he said. “The last are all white.”
“There’s also the Glaucous Gull, which is circumpolar, and comes down this time in winter,” he added.
“So the gulls are an interesting group,” said Guthrie, “because you never know what’s going to turn up in a flock of them.”
Among the greatest number of a single species seen were the Snow Geese, which in successive flocks totaled more than an approximate 1,100 birds in flyovers.
Guthrie explained that there is a large staging area for Snow Geese up in Vermont, and that a freeze-up likely pushed them all south.
One of the uncommon birds reported by the group was a Golden Eagle, a species which Guthrie said is steadily, if gradually, building a healthy population in the mountains of Eastern Canada from its more western climes.
He also noted the strength of the Bald Eagle locally, of which the group saw about 18.
“We have a healthy population of Bald Eagles now,” said Guthrie. “There were none 50 years ago, and it took 20 years for the first one to be seen here on a Christmas Count.”
“Since then the numbers have been growing enthusiastically,” he added.
Other species, in numbers great or small, included favorite winter-time visitors like the raspberry-colored Purple Finch, the flitting white-and-chestnut brilliancy of Snow Buntings, and the silent majesty of winter-plumaged Rough-legged Hawks, which breed above the Arctic Circle.
In all, the 10 groups of the Catskill-Coxsackie Count Circle tallied about 80 species — not a bad days’ work outdoors having fun and doing good at the same time.
To reach reporter Jim Planck, call 518-943-2100, ext. 3324, or e-mail jplanck@thedailymail.net.
Longtime local birder and noted avian expert Richard Guthrie, of New Baltimore, who always takes part in the count, said Thursday that the day offers fun for the participants, and yields important long-term data for those monitoring the health and well being of bird species.
“It’s a snapshot,” said Guthrie. “A lot of valuable knowledge comes out of the long-term accumulation of the data.”
Guthrie said that locally, that data has been growing for some time.
“In Greene County,” said Guthrie, “we are at 48 years and counting, so in two more years will be our 50th count.”
“We’re putting the data together for the ‘moving’ picture,” he said, in reference to being able to view the specie trends over that time period, adding, “and that will be detailed out in our 50th year.”
Ironically, the Christmas Bird Count actually has part of its origin in the destructive outdoor social habits of the very late 1800s, just before the turn of the 20th century.
There was a holiday tradition popular at that time called the Christmas “Side Hunt,” in which sides were chosen and then people would head out with their guns into the fields and woods.
Whichever side brought back the largest pile of birds and animals won.
It was also during this time period when conservation efforts in America were taking hold, including the creation and beginnings of the Audubon Society.
One of the group’s ornithologists, Frank Chapman, was one of those concerned about declining bird populations, so he came up with a way to collect their numbers, spend time in the field, and create a new tradition to offset the concept of the side hunt, all at the same time — the Christmas Bird Count.
Accordingly, on Christmas Day 1900, Chapman proposed his idea, and with 27 other concerned birders, they achieved 25 separate bird counts totalling 90 species, representing areas as diverse as Ontario and California, on that very first Christmas Bird Count.
Chapman, who in 1908 became Curator of Birds at NYC’s American Museum of Natural History, is a true legend in the birdwatching world for his commitment to helping Americans enjoy, observe, and protect birds.
In addition to scholarly works in journals and publications, he wrote almost 20 books and major reports on birds, including his 1895 Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America — which was a standard for the decades prior to the appearance of Roger Tory Peterson’s well known work in 1934, and one of the three books that influenced Peterson in the development of his own industry-changing work.
From Christmas 1900 to Christmas 2008, the tradition has thus been practiced 108 times, although now it is held on a day near, not on, Christmas, in order to allow participants the holiday with family.
Locally, this year’s was held on Dec. 16, and it is conducted each year inside a 15-mile wide circle using Green Lake, in the town of Athens, as its center.
Guthrie said it just touches New Baltimore on the north, runs down to Smith’s Landing and Embought Bay on the south, goes west to about Round Top, and crosses the river east to the Olana area.
Officially, it is known as the Catskill-Coxsackie Count Circle, and Guthrie said other circles include one in Columbia County, at Chatham, another down in the Shawangunk Mountains, by Lake Mohonk, one up in Albany County at DEC’s Five Rivers Center, and one in Dutchess County, at Baird Park.
It is by having the count circles spread across a variety of areas that, cumulatively, the data they provide takes meaning, said Guthrie.
“We had 10 groups go out for the Catskill-Coxsackie Circle,” he said, “which includes all of Catskill, Athens, and Coxsackie, plus many smaller communities, like Kiskatom and Medway.”
Guthrie said that one of his favorites every year is to observe the gulls — noting there is far more to them than just the generalized term “sea gulls,” typically used for Ring-Billed Gulls.
“The Hudson River is a great spot for gulls,” said Guthrie, “and the gulls are a wide variety of different types.”
“There’s Herring Gulls, and Great Black-backed Gulls, and Icelandic Gulls,” he said. “The last are all white.”
“There’s also the Glaucous Gull, which is circumpolar, and comes down this time in winter,” he added.
“So the gulls are an interesting group,” said Guthrie, “because you never know what’s going to turn up in a flock of them.”
Among the greatest number of a single species seen were the Snow Geese, which in successive flocks totaled more than an approximate 1,100 birds in flyovers.
Guthrie explained that there is a large staging area for Snow Geese up in Vermont, and that a freeze-up likely pushed them all south.
One of the uncommon birds reported by the group was a Golden Eagle, a species which Guthrie said is steadily, if gradually, building a healthy population in the mountains of Eastern Canada from its more western climes.
He also noted the strength of the Bald Eagle locally, of which the group saw about 18.
“We have a healthy population of Bald Eagles now,” said Guthrie. “There were none 50 years ago, and it took 20 years for the first one to be seen here on a Christmas Count.”
“Since then the numbers have been growing enthusiastically,” he added.
Other species, in numbers great or small, included favorite winter-time visitors like the raspberry-colored Purple Finch, the flitting white-and-chestnut brilliancy of Snow Buntings, and the silent majesty of winter-plumaged Rough-legged Hawks, which breed above the Arctic Circle.
In all, the 10 groups of the Catskill-Coxsackie Count Circle tallied about 80 species — not a bad days’ work outdoors having fun and doing good at the same time.
To reach reporter Jim Planck, call 518-943-2100, ext. 3324, or e-mail jplanck@thedailymail.net.
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