CITIZEN SCIENTISTS
Hawk-eyed birders offer skills for Audubon count
It's dark, it's damp and it's cold. It's prime time for bird people.
Just like clockwork, watchers and ornithological hobbyists have been out in full force this season. Though many of them have counted for national cataloging efforts through the Marin Audubon Society's Christmas bird count, they consider themselves “birders” — simply, birdwatchers — all year around.
The National Audubon Society counts take place between mid-December and Jan. 5 each year and tally tens of millions of birds from about 3,000 different species in the United States and Latin America.
“There's a sort of camaraderie to this. It's fun and it's challenging,” said Barbara Salzman, president of the Marin Audubon Society. “The interest runs from the casual to really intense.
Some travel to other countries to see rare birds and other states. I am somewhere more in the middle.”
This is the best season to observe water birds — especially in the area around Corte Madera, at Shorebird Marsh or at the Las Gallinas Sanitary District — because they travel north to breed in the summer, experts said.
The birds out most this season include waterfowl such as dabbling ducks, diving ducks and other forms of shorebirds.
Birders like Salzman use attributes such as feathers and bill size to determine the species. The location of the birds, guided by historical patterns, can also indicate the type of bird.
A birder for more than 40 years, Salzman said she was spurred by conservation and anti-development efforts in Marin.
“Wildlife is an important part of our wildlife and ecosystem,” she said. “It's sat
“There's a sort of camaraderie to this. It's fun and it's challenging. The interest runs from the casual to really intense. Some travel to other countries to see rare birds and other states.”
— Barbara Salzman, president of the Marin Audubon Society