On December 14, I travelled to New York City to witness one of the oldest long-term wildlife monitoring projects in existence: the Central Park Christmas Bird Count. Although Christmas Bird Counts are held all over the country at this time of year, Central Park is one of only two locations (the other is in Princeton, New Jersey) that has hosted a CBC event for 109 years in a row.
As if that weren’t cool enough, while I was there I met a ninety-one year-old man who has been counting birds in Central Park for seventy-three years and an eight-year-old boy with four counts to his credit already. I met a teenager who digs the majesty of hawks and spotted a hawk with a fan club.* I saw passion. And intensity. And community.
I loved every second.
In fact, if I weren’t so busy typing up my notes and transcribing interview tapes and remembering sights and sounds from the day, I would be rubbing my hands together at the prospect of finding just the right words to share the wonder of it all with readers. But it is much too early for that. I’m attending another CBC event next weekend, and for now my job is to continue asking questions, recording answers, watching, and learning.
Here’s a photograph of a red-tailed hawk spotted at the NYC CBC count. The image was captured by Dr. David Krauss, a twenty-five year veteran of the Central Park CBC, an avid birder, and an excellent wildlife photographer.
So, if any of these recent bird posts have got you itching to count birds yourself, then consider these census events … both are open to birders of all levels:
Focus on Feeders
February 7-8, 2009 throughout Massachusetts;
Great Backyard Bird Count
February 13-15, 2009 throughout the country.
*If you don’t know which hawk I mean, use Google to search the words “Pale Male”. Better yet, do an Amazon search for the same words and then get yourself one of the THREE picture books recently written about this NYC resident. Oh, and you should know that it is highly unlikely that the hawk I saw was actually Pale Male; there are people who believe, however, that many of the red-tails hanging around Central Park are related to him. I like to think this was one of his younguns.