On Sunday I closed out the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) season in Concord, Massachusetts. The twelve-hour bird-spotting, snowbank-climbing, species-tallying marathon was an event to remember, and one that will greatly inform the CBC chapter of my CITIZEN SCIENTISTS book.
I spent the day attached to a group of birders led by the extraordinary naturalist Peter Alden. If you don’t know him by name, you may recognize his books. I came home with a new, signed copy of this one:
As if watching Peter bird was not enough, I also got to chat with him over lunch. I could have listened to his stories—which featured heroes like Jane Goodall and E.O. Wilson—for days. Alas, there were birds to count.
Surprisingly, at least to me, a lot of our birding was done like this:
Because of the frigid temperatures and the large-ish geographical area in need of census, we often drove to a location, got out briefly to count birds, then hopped back in the car to record the numbers and zip on to the next location. As you can see in the photo above, we occasionally skipped the ”got out briefly” bit and simply counted birds from the car. It was an oddly effective approach.
Throughout the day I managed to spot three Life Birds (birds I have not yet seen in my life): snow goose (we saw a flock of sixteen, including several juveniles), pine siskin, and Carolina wren. I wanted to take pictures to share here you but, well, none of my Life Birds would pose. I did find some penguins that were more obliging:
One heron and an owl, too:
Lest you think I am totally incompetent, here are some live birds. Ten points if you can tell me what they are:
