Annual count reveals bird population changes

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About 20 birders of different skill levels attended the 2018 Christmas Bird Count. The group split into several teams that spent at least six hours in the field counting and documenting birds.


MONTE VISTA— Just after sunrise on Saturday, Dec. 15, about 20 San Luis Valley residents gathered in the main office of the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. Their aim that day was to count as many birds as possible within a 15-mile radius for the Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count.
Temperatures had plunged to a low of about 13 degrees sometime during the night. But the cold didn’t deter birders from their mission. Nor did it discourage the hardy birds that stick it out through winter in the Valley from chattering softly throughout the trees around the refuge office. Most of the tweets and chirps drifted from the thick greenery of the surrounding evergreens, which provide birds with good shelter for staving off winter’s chill. Though the bird’s dawn chorus is more raucous in spring and summer (due to greater numbers of birds and variety of species), the morning’s gentle song was music to birder’s ears.
The Christmas Bird Count has been an annual tradition at the refuge since 1957, which was just a few years after the conservation area was established in 1952. The count stemmed from a larger movement that began decades earlier when conservation-minded observers and scientists became concerned with declining bird populations. Ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition in 1900 for a Christmas Bird Census (CBC). Observers would count all the birds they could find in one day rather than hunt them as people had done in the past. On that first count, 27 observers tallied 90 species in 25 locations along a swath from Ontario to California.
Fast forward to the 21st century— it’s estimated more than 1,650 CBC’s are held between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. They occur in all 50 states, every Canadian province, parts of Central and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies and Pacific Islands. Volunteers in each CBC cover as much ground as possible within a 15-mile radius (around 177 square miles) in a 24- hour period.
The bird counts are not only a celebration of life and a more conservation-minded outlook, they are considered citizen science. Data collected by observers over the past century have allowed researchers, conservation biologists, wildlife agencies and others to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America and other participating parts of the world. When combined with other surveys such as the Breeding Bird Survey, it provides a picture of how the continent’s bird populations have changed in time and space over the past 100 years.
The Monte Vista refuge count, for example, has documented dramatic increases of introduced species such as European Starlings, House Sparrows, Eurasian Collared Doves and Rock Pigeons. Species such as Mallards and Northern Pintails have experienced sharp declines. Ring-necked Pheasants haven’t been spotted on the refuge count since 2004.
Factors that impact the presence of species are, of course, weather, temperatures and the availability of food and water, said refuge manager Suzanne Beauchaine. In modern times, more people tend to put out birdfeeders, which help species such as sparrows, finches, chickadees, magpies and crows.
Water management in the Valley has also had a direct impact on the number and kinds of birds present over the decades, Beauchaine added. “Before we understood the impacts to the confined aquifer, water users allowed large, free-flowing artesian wells to run all year. This kept tens of thousands of waterfowl in the Valley throughout the winter until the wetlands froze.” After high concentrations of waterfowl sickened with avian cholera, the large wells were closed during the winter, encouraging the birds to move south to their traditional wintering habitats. “Well owners and the state of Colorado recognized the impact to the aquifer and implemented regulations to protect the aquifers.”
Birders attending Saturday’s CBC split up into teams that hit the north, east, south and west sides of the refuge up to 15 miles in each direction. Local residents Charlie Spielman and Tim Carden were assigned the town of Monte Vista, where they counted about 21 species by the end of the day. They spotted European Starling flocks— known as murmurations— on ranches and in town. Around bird feeders, they saw House Finches, White-crowned Sparrows, House Sparrows and Eurasian Collared Doves. Out at the water-treatment lagoons, they documented ravens. One of the most entertaining sightings was a Downy Woodepecker dangling from a shriveled crabapple still attached to the tree.  
Good fortune was smiling on Carden that day. He got to hear Spielman’s historical remembrances of town as drove around town. Spielman, who is in his mid-80s, pointed out an old ash pit on the north side of town. “Ash pits can still be seen near some of the older houses,” he said. “Anything burnable would go in there and after it cooled down you would scoop out the ash from an opening in the bottom.” He also pointed out the old hospital on Davis Street where he was born. “The hospital was given a second floor and converted into a house.”
Though Spielman left Monte Vista for about 50 years for a career in mine engineering, he eventually returned. Now, rather than hunting birds, he’s a member of the Friends of the San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuges, a non-profit group dedicated to supporting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge System. The group promotes awareness of the Alamosa, Baca and Monte Vista national wildlife refuges through education and its members assist with refuge projects and support recreational activities such as the Monte Vista and Kids crane festivals. It was the first CBC Spielman has attended. “I learned so much and had a great time,” he said.
The CBC is a great way for anyone interested in bird watching to know what species are around this time of year. Beauchaine’s group spotted over 500 Canada geese and two sandhill cranes on the southeast corner of the refuge. “Last year, we had 52 cranes on Christmas Bird Count, but the temperatures were really warm,” she said.  
Other birds typically seen around the refuge in winter include Rough-legged hawks, Bald Eagles and Northern Harriers. “Northern Harriers are interesting,” Beauchaine said. “They used to be called Marsh Harriers because they typically hunt around wetland edges.” Northern Harriers are a small hawk and “really cool because you don’t need to know your birds very well to be able to identify them. Rather than soaring like most other hawks, [they] fly about 10 feet off the ground in a flat, flat glide.” 
The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge is open from one hour before sunrise to one after sunset, seven days a week. For more information on the Christmas Bird Count, visit Audubon.org. To view historical bird population numbers tallied at the refuge, visit netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation/.


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