The Audubon Christmas Bird Count

Natural Wanders…
exploring the natural world through writing

Images: Copyright Steven David Miller, protected by international copyright laws.
Do not copy or reproduce in any manner. All rights strictly reserved.
Text: Copyright Linda Lee Rathbun, protected by international copyright laws.
Do not copy or reproduce in any manner without the express permission of the author.
All rights stricly reserved.

For the Birds
By Linda Lee Rathbun
Photography: Steven David Miller

Throughout Georgia and Florida, early winter brings with it many migrating birds. Some pass through, and some stay until spring begins to warm their breeding grounds further north. Along Georgia’s coastline and all the way down through Florida and back up the Gulf Coast, birds are one of the best aspects of the winter season. In fact, birders come from around the world to look for wintering migrants and for permanent residents that, come spring, are transformed by their breeding plumage into ravishing beings. The story of birds in Georgia and Florida is also the story of the National Audubon Society and their annual Christmas Bird Count.

Some of the birds in our southwest corner of North America have such beautiful mating plumage that humans sought to steal their loveliness. In the late 18001800s, fashion dictated that ladies should adorn themselves with bird plumes. Hats with wide brims were graced with feathers that looked like handmade lace. Bird quills were used for writing, and bird eggs were collected as an amusing pastime. Whole colonies of nesting birds in coastal Georgia and Florida could be annihilated in a single breeding season. Eggs, like that of the brown pelican, were snatched from nests with no regard for future generations. Egrets and herons, adorned with feathery veils as lovely as a bride’s, were killed and then plucked--their hungry chicks left to starve on the nest. Roseate spoonbills were also hunted for their feathers: their wings turned into scarlet fans. There were no laws to protect our vulnerable feathered friends.

In 1886, the editor of Field & Stream magazine was so concerned with the slaughter of millions of birds that he roused his readers to action, asking them to join him in an organization that would fight to preserve birds. Within one year, 38,000 readers had formed the first Audubon Society, fittingly named for the famous wildlife artist, John James Audubon. This early Audubon Society floundered, however in 1896 a band of ladies formed the Massachusetts Audubon Society with the purpose of putting an end to the plume trade. By 1905, there were 35 state Audubon societies nationwide, and these became incorporated into a national society.

So, National Audubon Society began the work it continues today: political lobbying to enact laws that protect wildlife, conservation of habitat, research, and education. In 1910, the New York State Audubon Plumage Law was passed, prohibiting the sale of native plume feathers in the state that was the heart of the fashion industry. Earlier, in 1903, Audubon had approached Teddy Roosevelt to protect Florida’s Pelican Isle from hunting. Roosevelt decreed it a National Wildlife Refuge, the first of 50 that he created. Audubon hired rangers to patrol the refuges; three of these pioneer rangers were murdered by poachers right along with the birds. Today, there are over 90 million acres in the National Wildlife Refuge system, with ten in Georgia.

Audubon is still actively involved with the Refuge system, and they have their own sanctuaries such as Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Southwest Florida where wood storks complete their winter commute from Georgia. The wood stork is an endangered bird, and is considered an indicator species: a way of monitoring the health of our wetlands in Georgia and Florida. The painted bunting also leaves its summer range in coastal Georgia to winter in places like Florida’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

Nature is resilient and forgives we humans our mistakes--but only up to a point. With protection and a drop in demand for plumes, bird numbers in Florida and Georgia began to recover. By then, Audubon had become involved with the Christmas Bird Count, known as the CBC. This started in 1900 as a symbolic protest against the traditional Christmas Side Hunt where hunters formed teams and competed to see who could kill the most birds on a single day. The first CBC drew 27 birders in 25 locations counting 18,500 birds (90 species) over a 24-hour period.

The Audubon CBC continued, without fail, over the next century, and on its 101^st anniversary in 2000, the CBC was conducted at 1,880 locations ranging from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego with 51,637 birders counting 54,788,215 birds. This is the longest running ornithological database anywhere, and in cooperation with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, is now directly recorded into both the Birdsource and Audubon websites where the data can be examined by researchers. So far, this data has been used in over 182 journal articles.

With data spanning the century, the CBC makes it possible to track permanent residents and early winter visitors on the last stages of their southward migration. This, along with bird counts during other parts of the year, gives Audubon a clear picture of what is going on. What had happened with the terrible decline in those birds with beautiful feathers? Up to the 1950s, the news for Georgia’s and Florida’s wading birds was outstanding. They had recovered from a 90% decline, back up to their historic numbers before commercial hunting began. This type of
information makes it worth the effort to count birds.

Birds are also an exquisitely sensitive indicator of what is happening in the environment. For example, we used to use DDT with gleeful abandon until bird counts revealed an alarming decline in the number of brown pelicans, osprey, and bald eagles, all found in Georgia and Florida. Why the drop in numbers? Researchers discovered that pesticide contamination working its way up the food chain made egg shells unsustainably fragile. DDT was banned and other measures were taken, and those species recovered. Without the CBC and other bird counts, these species may have been lost to us forever.

The CBC requires tremendous organization. Teams are formed to cover a specific twelve-mile circle at each designated site. In the 101^st count, there were 19 CBCs in Georgia, and 62 in Florida. The team leader must be thoroughly familiar with his/her area, and it must be covered in the same manner each year. The team must also have an expert birder to minimize the number of misidentified species. Mistakes still occur--after all, the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds lists more than twenty warblers under a section called "confusing fall warblers". The only thing I can determine after looking through the pictures of these warblers is that I am, indeed, confused. The serious birders, those people who can tell the difference between a molting immature broad-wing hawk and a red-shouldered hawk, are given the task of identifying species. Rank amateurs, who are no less enthusiastic but cannot distinguish a wood stork from a white pelican, are assigned the task of recording the data. Factoring human error into the results, the CBC forges on every year: after all, it is better to do something—even if there are mistakes involved—than to do nothing.

The CBC is not just for ornithologists. Let us say, for example, that you are interested in finding out about the European starling and its spread across North America. The starling, along with the common house sparrow, was introduced in 1890 from Europe to New York City by the Shakespeare Society; they wanted to "give" America every bird that the Bard had written about--100 were initially introduced. By using the data from the CBC, you could track the spread of this species across the entire United States. The CBC and other counts estimate that today there are 200 million European starlings in the United States. They aggressively compete for nesting cavities, and there has been a corresponding drop in native species of similar size and habits.

Perhaps you are interested in a species that introduced itself to South America on the winds of storms blowing across from Africa. The cattle egret migrated to South America in 1880, and by 1942, it had made its way to Florida. You could track the expansion in range with the CBC database. In the 1950s, the cattle egret began nesting on coastal islands. Does this feathered immigrant compete with native egrets and herons for nesting space on the mangrove and barrier islands of Florida and Georgia? Here, you would encounter the limits of what the CBC measures: it counts birds over the early winter period, not during the breeding season. However, the CBC inspired the Breeding Bird Survey, which does just that. The BS would reveal that your question deserves further research. Numbers of breeding cattle egrets are up, while breeding native egrets and herons are down.

The CBC data reveals other things. When a species count is cross-referenced with weather patterns, ornithologists can determine if and how droughts and harsh or mild winters affect the migration of wading birds and warblers. They can look at a species’ decline and compare it with loss of habitat. They can gage the progress of conservation programs. When the trumpeter swan was re-introduced to its former Midwest and Eastern habitats, the CBC helped determine that the program had been a success. What about those Canadian geese that fly to Georgia for the winter? The species is recorded in a number of CBC areas: Athens and Atlanta to name two. It is on the increase, no doubt due to coordinated management programs. The Northern Bobwhite count is down in Georgia, continuing a steady decline for this once common species. The same is true for the loggerhead shrike.

And what of the wading birds that recovered after the end of plume hunting? In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a second decline was noted, particularly in South Florida. What was happening? Well, the region's wetlands were being developed at a frightening rate. By the 1980s, wading bird numbers were again down by 90%, this time due to loss of habitat. Audubon, along with other conservation organizations, became involved in the Everglades Restoration project. As watersheds are restored to their natural flow, the CBC will help determine if wading birds are also restored to historic numbers; this will be studied over the coming decades. Protection of species and habitat works. In Georgia, the brown pelican is proof of this as its numbers were the highest ever for the coastal CBCs.

If you are one of the six million people in America who enjoys binding, then maybe you would like to join a Christmas Bird Count near you. Go to the Audubon website. Click on Birds & Science, then on Christmas Bird Count, then on Get Involved. There are CBCs in Athens, Atlanta, Floyd County, Dalton, and Chatahoochee National Forest. Close to the southern border, there is the Bainbridge-Lake Seminole CBC, and one for Okefenokee Swamp. Along coastal Georgia, there are a number of counts, including the Cumberland Island and St.Catherines Island CBCs. For those who would like to join the National Audubon Society, there are eight chapters in Georgia.

To me, the National Audubon Society is an exhilarating symbol of what we can do when we put our minds to solving a problem. To protect our birds and other wildlife, Audubon continues to participate in research, education, conservation, and political activism. Audubon uses the CBC for their WatchList that targets birds in trouble before they have to be placed on the Endangered Species List. The society also determines critical wildlife habitat and migratory routes, and targets these for conservation in their Important Bird Areas and Wetlands Campaign; Georgia now has 29 Important Bird Areas, seven of which are in northern Georgia, and with 70 more sites under consideration.

Without Audubon, so many of our beautiful birds would have died off. Birds are counted because they count. Audubon has always been, and continues to be, strictly for the birds.

THE END