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Christmas Counts on vacation



Christmas Bird Counts can be a heck of a lot of fun, and Cynthia and I have
done the local one (Buncombe County) for years now. But it's also fun to do
a Christmas Bird Count somewhere away from home. A few years ago the family
Christmas was held in Tucson, and I was able to participate in the Green
Valley-Madera Canyon CBC. At first I was disappointed that I had been
assigned to Green Valley, which is suburban in parts, instead of to the
rightfully famous Madera Canyon. However, it was an absolutely wonderful
experience: dawn to dusk birding with friendly and helpful birders in an
area very different from WNC with many different birds.
This year the family will gather in Ventura, California. I looked up the
count circles in the area in the 101st Christmas Count edition of American
Birds and e-mailed the compilers of four or five nearby count circles.
(Since we'll only be there a week, I figured the dates of many of the counts
would fall outside my window.) I just heard back from someone with the
Ventura count--I'll be joining them, if the creek don't rise, on 28 December
for their count. Aside from gas for the rental car, the fun will cost me $5,
somewhat less then I'd pay to go to a movie, and I'll be contributing in a
small but very real way to ornithological research.
Audubon has now made it even easier to join a Christmas count. Go to
www.audubon.org/bird/cbc and click on "Get Involved." After entering the
state and city/town you're interested in, you'll get a map of the
surrounding area showing count circles (e.g., the one for Asheville NC shows
11 count circles, from the Smokies to Gastonia, and from Highlands Plateau
to Grandfather Mountain). Once you decide which count you'd like to join,
you can click on "Contact Information," and get a link to the compiler's
e-mail. Easy as pie.
The above website also allows you to view or print the results of past
counts. I printed a list of recent Ventura results so I can study up on the
species likely to be seen, and don't let a Hutton's Vireo slip by as a
Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
For those of you who haven't done a CBC before, many counts conclude with a
"countdown," held at a restaurant or as a potluck, where count participants
can relax and share their experiences with the others. It's a great way to
end a fun day.
Happy birding!
Charlotte Goedsche
Weaverville NC
goedsche@mindspring.com