On Sunday, Dec. 17 Evergreen Audubon will conduct its annual Christmas Bird Count for the 55^th consecutive year.  This is a day devoted to counting birds in a 15-mile-diameter circle that extends from Robinson Hill Road on the north to just south of the Brook Forest Inn; and from near Echo Lake on the west to the bottom of Kerr Gulch on the east.  It is one of about 2500 Christmas Bird Counts held annually throughout the Western Hemisphere, and one of about fifty such counts held here in Colorado.

On our count day we will head out in small groups to find as many species and individual birds as we can within our circle.  Folks of all abilities and ages are encouraged to participate by joining one of our field groups, or by staying home and seeing what shows up at your feeders.  Feeder-counters have made a huge difference in our results in recent years.  Contact me, Chuck Aid, at birdmon@evergreenaudubon.org, if you would like to be a feeder counter.

Each year several interesting stories emerge from our day in the field. In 2014 it snowed all day and drove large numbers of Pine Grosbeaks and Cassin’s Finches down from the higher elevations. In 2015 we had gloriously mild weather allowing us to record almost 2000 more individual birds than the prior year, and to set a new record for our area of 57 species. Then, 2016 was the Year of the Juncos, with 2171 individuals of this one species.  Finally, 2017 was the No Snow Year leading to low counts for the Rosy-Finches.  And then, in 2018 we trumped ourselves again by finding 58 species, and we did well with species from both lower and higher elevations.  2019 brought us a pair of Trumpeter Swans; and 2020, the Covid count, was truly incredible with a doubling of our number of feeder-counters to 51, and, subsequently, an all-time high number of birds, 9197, and a remarkable 1101 Pygmy Nuthatches.  Again in 2021 we had great feeder-counter participation, and this helped boost our final count to 6,579 birds, about a thousand more than we get on average.  And, finally, last year we had a whopping 8,792 birds and picked up a new species not recorded in the 53 prior years, a Pacific Wren.

As usual, this year we will continue to pay special attention to the Mountain Chickadees and Pygmy Nuthatches, looking for high counts in the hope that we can continue to be the world champs for both of these species. We’ve been the Mountain Chickadee world champs for several years in a row now, but the Pygmy Nuthatch competition has been more nip and tuck.

After a full day of counting birds, participants are invited to one of Evergreen Audubon’s premier events of the year – the Tally Rally. This is a traditional pot-luck supper, where we share our findings and adventures of the day. This year’s hosts will be Lisa and David Wald, who have generously made their home available for the occasion.

You are invited to attend Evergreen Audubon’s Dec. 7 chapter meeting where you can learn more about the Christmas Bird Count, talk with area leaders, practice identifying birds, sign up to be a feeder counter, and, also, sign up to bring a dish to the potluck.

You may register here for the bird counting portion of the day, and I will get in touch with you to help find a group for you to join, or, if you are an old hand at this, you may just get in touch with whatever area leader you have gone out with previously, or you can wait for an area leader to initiate contact. The bottom line – if you want to make sure that you are in the loop, register here, and I will be in touch.  Registration for the Tally Rally at the end of the day will be handled through a separate upcoming Christmas Bird Count post.

Thanks,

Chuck Aid, Director of Bird Monitoring