Birder’s Notebook – Nome’s 46th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count
A foggy but warm and windless window between storms opened up over the weekend – just long enough for Nome’s annual Christmas Bird Count to take place.
During Saturday’s short daylight hours, ten observers searched for birds within Nome’s traditional count area by vehicle, skis, snowshoes and on foot. Birds, too, were active during this relatively pleasant break in the wind and weather. Despite poor visibility, most of the few expected winter-resident species (summarized below) were seen.
For those of us interested in birds, being part of the Christmas count is a satisfying way to contribute our interest and knowledge to a nationwide, entirely volunteer bird census which began over 100 years ago. This citizen-science project has become the largest-scale, longest-running wildlife census of any kind in the world. Prior to the late 1800s there was little thought about conservation or recognition that wildlife resources were limited. In the spirit of inexhaustible resources, there was a traditional holiday competition called the Christmas side hunt. Teams set out Christmas morning to harvest every wild thing they could find and the group returning at the end of the day with the biggest pile of feathers and fur was declared the winner.
However, by the end of the 1800s, observers and scientists had sounded the alarms about a dramatic decline in bird numbers and the Audubon
Society was formed to advocate for the protection and appreciation of birds. One of the founders, Frank Chapman, suggested an alternative holiday activity to census birds rather than shoot them.
The first Audubon count began on Christmas day in 1900. There were 27 participants in 24 locations around the United States and Canada and a total of 90 species were counted.
The idea took off and a new holiday tradition was born. Every year since, until last year when the COVID-19 pandemic reduced participation, the numbers of volunteer observers and count areas have increased.
In 2019, the 120th year of the count, 2,646 counts were completed. They took place in all 50 states, all Canadian provinces and in over 185 locations in Latin America, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands. There were 81,601 observers who tallied 2,566 species, and 42,704,077 individual birds, including the 322 birds found in Nome.
The Christmas Bird Count has become a critical tool for gaining information that can be used to conserve and protect birds during a time when many factors threaten their future.
Using consistent methods for scientific comparisons, this massive volunteer effort tracks the abundance and distribution of birds on a scale that professional scientists could never accomplish alone.
The data and the long-term view it provides are hugely important to researchers studying population status and ranges of birds across the Americas. It has become a measuring stick by which ornithologists and conservation biologists assess how bird populations are doing and where species occur. State and federal agencies rely on this information when making policy and management decisions concerning bird conservation.
Count data provides important documentation of changing winter distribution of birds in response to climate change. Over the last 40 years, the data has shown that 58 percent of the species tracked in the Christmas count have moved their winter ranges northward or to higher elevations.
The first Christmas count in Nome was in 1975. In most years, the results have been similar to this year – relatively few hardy and predictable species that regularly winter in the far north have been found.
In recent years, however, open water has often remained close to shore in Nome’s count area which is a circle with a 15-mile diameter centered in Nome. In those years, the number of species seen during the December count has been bolstered by various seabirds that may remain as long there is open marine water. This year’s long cold spell froze Norton Sound’s near-shore waters and we saw a return to a smaller number of species, well-adapted to withstand the rigors of a sub-arctic winter.
A few observations come to mind as I reflect on this year’s count and the species seen and those not found.
Over the years, ravens, McKay’s and snow buntings and willow ptarmigan have been seen most regularly and they made a good showing again this year.
During the last two counts, willow ptarmigan were not found on count day, reflecting low numbers of in the area. This year, it was very nice to find them in good-sized flocks throughout the count area.
Raven numbers are increasing at the dump again after they were dramatically reduced during a period when trash was quickly buried.
Last year neither chickadees nor redpolls were found during the count and chickadees were missing throughout the winter. This year they are back.
In addition to the species found during the count, a downy woodpecker, an American dipper and a northern shrike were seen during count week which includes the three days before and after count day. Those species regularly winter here, but in such small numbers they are hard to find on any given day and often are not seen during the count. Rock ptarmigan are present, but at
Nome Custom Jewelry higher elevations that are usually not covered in the count. This weekend’s dense fog prevented glassing the upper hillsides to spot them.
Often a gyrfalcon is seen especially during years when ptarmigan are abundant, but not so this year.
The count and my other observations this winter show little spillover of birds from forested areas that occasionally brings Canada jays, boreal chickadees and pine grosbeaks to the Nome area. Also absent are sparrow species and dark-eyed juncos that very occasionally remain through the winter, relying on feeders.
Nome Christmas Bird Count – December 18, 2021: Willow Ptarmigan – 117; Rock Pigeon – 22; Common Raven – 350; Black-capped Chickadee – 4; Snow Bunting – 17; McKay’s Bunting – 12; Bunting species – 4 ; Redpoll species – 26