For more than a century, amateur and experienced birders have taken to the roads and hiking trails of America to participate in the National Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count. The Audubon’s Santa Barbara Chapter joins the 117-year-old tradition each year with counts across the county, including the upcoming Santa Maria/Guadalupe region count on Dec. 26.
Local Audubon volunteer Alex Abela has participated in the bird count since the mid 1980s, he said. Abela is an Audubon member and acts as a compiler, adding the results of the bird count into a computer database.
“You have to have some experience or expertise in identifying different species of birds,” Abela said. “The Audubon identifies these 15-mile diameter circles, and for a 24-hour period of time, you count the different species of birds and the number you see of each species.”
Abela is compiling three different local counts this year, including the La Purisima count, the Lake Cachuma count, and the Santa Maria/Guadalupe count, he said.
The members of the local Audubon chapter form teams and set out at dawn to seek and record the birds. Each team picks a different area of the 15-mile count circle and reconvenes in the evening to pool their results. The Central Coast is an important region for the Audubon’s data this time of year because of its climate, Abela explained.
“This is a good area for it because this is the winter time, so the states up north don’t get to see too many species, but here we get a pretty good diversity of birds year-round,” Abela said. “The counts here, in terms of the total number of different species you see, they are among the top counts in the country. And you’re talking about 2,000 counts in the nation.”
Abela said that plenty of familiar migratory birds are seen during the count, like ducks and geese, from as far north as Canada. Plenty of sparrows are also here this time of year, he said.
The Christmas Bird Count is an important tool for not just the Audubon Society but for biologists who study the populations of the animals. The count is helpful for conservation and protection efforts as well, Abela said.
“It’s a good database for seeing trends in the species vitality, its viability. And a lot of times it’s the Christmas counts that recognize a particular species is in distress,” he said. “And we’ve got 100 years’ worth of data now.”
Joining the Christmas Bird Count isn’t a leisure activity, Abela explained. Volunteers drive far and hike miles to find the birds, he said. “It’s not just sitting in a lawn chair.”
The more diehard volunteers even stay out into the evening to record nocturnal birds, Abela explained. But how do you spy birds at night? Well, they have a trick for that too.
“A good way of finding owl species is playing a recording and seeing if you get a response,” he said. “That’s often how you get a lot of the screech owls or great horned owls.”
Those interested in joining the count can check out the National Audubon Society’s website or the Santa Barbara Chapter’s website. They can also email Abela directly (see info box).
The count, and bird watching in general, is just a fun way to spend a morning or afternoon, he said. Once you see your first few species and learn them by name, it’s easy to get hooked.
“You keep a life list, how many different birds you can see, and it gets you outdoors,” he said. “And it’s exciting. I guess some people like to climb mountains, and some people like to count the different birds they see.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne has his eyes toward the sky. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 22-29, 2016.