“Oh my goodness, count, Steve,” Louise Brown said as a flock of around 75 Canada geese flew over the North Fields in Wasatch County, squawking loudly.
Louise and Steve Brown were participating in the 126th National Christmas Bird Count Saturday in the Heber area.
The count is an annual citizen science bird census run by the National Audubon Society. From Dec. 14 to Jan. 5, birders across the world pick one day to count birds in their local area while noting the temperature, weather, snow depth, wind and cloud cover.
Louise Brown said the Cornell Lab of Ornithology then uses the data to study trends in migration patterns and the health of different species. The numbers are in hundreds of analyses, peer-reviewed publications and government reports.
“If you don't see any of a certain bird for five years, they're thinking, what's going on here? And then they can analyze the data and see what they think might be influencing that,” she said. “Of course, habitat loss is the biggest threat to wildlife and birds.”
Wasatch County joined the national effort in 2011 and the Browns have participated every year since.
The Kamas Valley couple began volunteering for state parks and got into bird watching after retiring. Twenty-five years later, their passion for the hobby remains strong.
Each count area is a 15-mile radius. The Browns’ group was in charge of tracking birds in north and south Heber Saturday. While some count areas are done on foot, others are from vehicles.
Heber is more urban so the Browns chugged along by car, stopping whenever a bird might have been spotted.
“I suspect most of these black birds we see flying in big flocks are European starlings, and they are non-native birds, as are Eurasian collared doves, and we see a lot of them,” Louise Brown said. “The reason they have concern about non-native birds is that they outcompete the native birds for food and habitat.”
Sometimes a potential bird turns out to be a cowpie in the grass or a stump. But sometimes they discover something exciting.
If they’re ever unsure — like when Steve Brown insisted he saw something in the distant trees — the Browns get out a spotting scope. The high-magnification telescope allows for more visual detail.
And sure enough, Steve Brown spotted a Cooper’s hawk. The medium-sized hawk is a year-round resident in Utah and can be identified by its long tail, upright posture and bluish-gray back.
“Three of us kept saying, ‘It’s tree junk, it’s tree junk,’ and Steve says, ‘No, it's a bird,’” Louise Brown said. “Steve is a really good spot.”
Louise Brown said the best part of the bird count is sharing their passion and hooking the next generation.
“That's my most exciting part is getting some young person who hasn't ever done this and [they say], ‘Well, that's dumb. Why do you do this?’ until they see something really cool, and then they're hooked,” she said.
She said they then become advocates for birds and other wildlife and carry on the count.
Lydia Jackson was one such person at the count. She’s a Brigham Young University student studying biology, and while she has gone birding for fun before, she had never attended an official count.
“I'm excited to just get to know the endemic species a bit more, excited to go look at birds with a bunch of cool people,” she said. “Participating in citizen science projects is just really fun and deeply rewarding.”
Jackson was most excited to spot an American kestrel, the smallest falcon, perched on a telephone wire. The group saw hundreds of birds throughout the day, tallying Downy woodpeckers, magpies, pigeons and various types of ducks.
Jackson also emphasized the importance of these projects. She said data gathered each year is extremely valuable, showing population trends and how climate change and other phenomena affect species.
Results of this year’s Christmas Bird Count will be available on the Audubon website.
