Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Christmas count gives birders chance to catch a glimpse of rarer species

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Tuesday, December 21, 1999

Christmas count gives birders chance to catch a glimpse of rarer species
Winter outings yield important location and population numbers of birds

Sponsored annually by the National Audubon Society, Christmas Bird Counts are anticipated by birders with the same enthusiasm baseball fans feel at World Series time. Faithful birders scour the bushes and scan the plains to find and tally all the birds in the area. The count this year began Dec. 16 and lasts through Jan. 3 and is officially the 100th Christmas Bird Count.
   Each birding group has a designated circle fifteen miles in diameter. Within this territory, teams of two to five people work together in smaller assigned areas, counting species and individuals. At a countdown meeting, information is shared. The data is then forwarded by a compiler to the National Audubon Society. Information thus gathered about location and population of species is scientifically valuable, and is not otherwise available.
   Christmas Bird Counts are to birders sport and social event, a challenging game, and as Frances Williams, editor of The Phalarope in Midland, says, "A CBC is a great way to celebrate the holiday season; a day outdoors, away from the commercial hullabaloo that seems to mean Christmas now...CBCs are as much a part of Christmas as the Christmas tree, and the discovery of a bird rarely seen before is much more exciting than the most elaborately wrapped package."
   Birding is seasonal in South Texas just as in less temperate climates, but it is always good here. The number of species of birds found on Christmas Bird Counts is determined by a combination of factors that include weather, and wetness or dryness of the season.
   What do we hope to find? Winter birds are here, some expected and others a grand surprise. Yellow-rumped warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets, blue-gray gnatcatchers, hermit thrushes, gray catbirds; also logger-head shrikes, many northern mockingbirds; shorebirds such as great-blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, and reddish egrets. We will work a little harder for the small plovers, semi-palmated, piping, and especially snowy. Black-bellied plovers and ruddy turnstones should still be on beaches, with willets. A late flock of red knots may be found by a fortunate birder. Laughing gulls will be one of our most numerous species.
   Recently seen on the shaded trail on the north side of Blucher Park were a green-tailed towhee and a spotted towhee. The spotted (formerly known as rufous-sided) is a common winter resident. The green-tailed is more unusual. You can bet birders in whose territory these birds occurred will take special pains to find them on their count.
   Expected ducks are blue and green-winged teal, but a cinnamon teal is a prize. Red-headed ducks and pintails should be abundant in bays. Buffle-headeds and a few red-breasted mergansers are standard. We do not usually see mallards, but I understand there are some this year. A belted kingfisher or two should be found in most count areas.
   This is just the tip of the iceberg, a list to dazzle birders in Illinois and icy northern places where birders are heroic who spend a few hours out in the elements to find 12 or 15 species.
   I have not mentioned such pleasures as identifying winter sparrows, or hoping to hear a scrap of song from a meadowlark in order to distinguish the eastern from the western species.
   If you see a car full of excited, binocular- and scope-wielding individuals, you will understand they are birders enjoying their national holiday sport.




Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.

| Discuss about birdwatching | | Home |

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

[an error occurred while processing this directive]