Christmas Bird Count comparison, 1956 and 2023

Black-billed magpies are always out and about no matter the weather on the day of the Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count, including this bird photographed during the latest count Dec. 16, 2023. Photo by Mark Gorges.

Latest Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count looks a bit different from 1956’s

Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle Jan. 5, 2024.

By Barb Gorges

            Recently, Bob Dorn shared the results of the Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count from the December 1955-January 1956 count season, the 56th CBC (overall).

            It’s interesting to compare the differences over 68 years:

–Then, the 7.5-mile-diameter count circle was centered on the KFBC radio station when it was on East Lincolnway, where Channel 5 is now, Dave Montgomery told me. Now it’s the Capitol.

–Then, the percentage of open country was higher. Laramie County had only 60,000 people, today 100,000.

–The Cheyenne Audubon Club became the Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society in 1974.

–Married women now get to use their own first names. I first met Mrs. Robert Hanesworth, May, in 1989, when she was the Cheyenne count compiler.

            Lt. Col. Charles H. Snyder could have been with F.E. Warren Air Force Base, giving count participants access to that part of the count circle. Today we have retired Colonel Charles Seniawski birding the base for us.

            Seven bird names have changed:

–Some Canada geese are now cackling geese.

–Marsh hawk is now northern harrier.

–Red-shafted and yellow-shafted flickers are now northern flicker.

–American magpie is now black-billed magpie.

–Gray shrike is now northern shrike.

–Common starling is now European starling.

–The white-winged, Oregon and pink-sided juncos were combined with other juncos as the dark-eyed junco.

            Participation has changed, too. We had 24 people help this time compared to only 7 in 1956. So naturally we traveled more hours and more miles by foot and vehicle. And back in the 50s, apparently the hours put into watching bird feeders weren’t separated.

            For our Dec. 16 count we had similar weather, not too windy, no snow, but warmer, 50s instead of 40s.

            As for the birds themselves, we counted more species, more geese, crows and starlings. Interestingly, we reported a greater variety of ducks, hawks and falcons, too.

            But it’s been a long time since we’ve seen evening grosbeaks. This may be the result of the decline in their population overall.

            This year’s highlights were the northern goshawk in Western Hills seen during count week (CW), the three days before and after count day, and the lone snow goose at Lions Park.

Audubon Field Notes – 56th CBC

Published by the National Audubon Society in Collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

56th Christmas Bird Count

Vol. 10, No.2

two dollars per copy 

April 1956

436. Cheyenne, Wyo. (7 ½-mile radius centering from radio station KFBC on east edge of town; city parks and cemeteries 30%, open prairie, deciduous & evergreen trees 20%, prairie roadside 10%, open meadows, reservoirs and creek bottoms 40%).

Jan. 2, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Clear; temp. 31 degrees to 46 degrees; wind W, 15-35 m.p.h.; no snow. Seven observers in 3 parties. Total party-hour, 56 (6 on foot, 50 by car); total party-miles, 148 (8 on foot, 140 by car).

Canada Goose 12

Mallard 20

Rough-legged Hawk 5

Golden Eagle 1

Marsh Hawk 1

Red-shafted Flicker 13

Hairy Woodpecker 1

Downy Woodpecker 1

Horned Lark 2029 (4 Northern)

American Magpie 25

American Robin 3

Bohemian Waxwing 2

Gray Shrike 1

Common Starling 98

House Sparrow 138

Evening Grosbeak 25

House Finch 4

Pine Grosbeak 4

Pine Siskin 2

White-winged Junco 1

Oregon Junco 86 (pink-sided 84)

American Tree Sparrow 18

Lapland Longspur 22

Total, 23 species (2 additional subsp.), about 2512 individuals. (Observed in area count period: American Goldeneye, Ring-necked Pheasant, Mountain Chickadee, Mockingbird, Townsend’s Solitaire, Common Redpoll, Slate-colored Junco).

Charles Brown, Mrs. Charles Brown, Mr. & Mrs. Robert Hanesworth, Wilhelmina Miller, Lt. Col. and Mrs. Charles H. Snyder (compiler) (Cheyenne Audubon Club).

Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count – 124^th CBC

Dec. 16, 2023

24 participants

Feeder watch time: 11 hours, 36 minutes

Walking: 12 hours, 25 minutes, 19.56 miles

Driving: 4 hours 19 minutes, 87.3 miles

Compiler: Grant Frost

Cackling Goose 183

Canada Goose 1686

Snow Goose 1

Mallard 207

Northern Shoveler 18

Green-winged Teal 3

Lesser Scaup CW

Common Goldeneye 2

Rock Dove (pigeon) 479

Eurasian Collared-Dove 107

Mourning Dove 3

Ring-billed Gull CW

Golden Eagle 1

Northern Harrier 9

Sharp-shinned Hawk CW

Cooper’s Hawk 1

American Goshawk CW

Bald Eagle 2

Red-tailed Hawk 6

Rough-legged Hawk CW

Ferruginous Hawk 1

Eastern Screech-Owl CW

Great Horned Owl 1

Belted Kingfisher 2

Downy Woodpecker 3

Hairy Woodpecker 1

Northern Flicker 21

American Kestrel 2

Merlin 2

Northern Shrike 1

Blue Jay 2

Black-billed Magpie 84

American Crow 108

Common Raven 12

Black-capped Chickadee 1

Mountain Chickadee 9

Horned Lark 270

White-breasted Nuthatch 1

Red-breasted Nuthatch 2

Brown Creeper 1

Winter Wren 1

European Starling 221

Townsend’s Solitaire 5

American Robin 2

House Sparrow 205

House Finch 63

Pine Siskin 1

American Goldfinch 9

American Tree Sparrow 13

Chipping Sparrow 1

Dark-eyed Junco 61

White-crowned Sparrow 6

Song Sparrow 2

Red-winged Blackbird 50

Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count report

The bushtit made its first appearance on the Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count Dec. 17, 2022. A small flock has been hanging out at Lions Park this fall. Photo by Grant Frost.

Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count had several remarkable observations

By Barb Gorges

            Perhaps somewhere in the archives of Rocky Mountain National Park is my signature on a piece of paper from the cylinder on Hallett’s Peak, proving I made it to the top in August 1973.

            Short of birth, death and graduation records, most of us don’t lead a permanently, well-documented life. But if you participate in a Christmas Bird Count, you can look yourself up online, at least back to 2005. More important are the number of birds counted, distances traveled and the weather conditions. That data goes back to 1900 (1974 for Cheyenne).

Explore the data at https://netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation/. The address changes whenever the sponsor, the National Audubon Society, reorganizes its website.

            This year was the 123^rd Christmas Bird Count, straddling the year end of 2022-2023. The Cheyenne count was held Dec. 17, 2022, within a 7.5-mile-diameter count circle centered on the State Capitol.

            The 20 participants together walked 26 miles, drove 76 miles and watched feeders for 15 hours.

            Here is the list of 51 species and how many were seen of each, plus a few notes.

Cackling Goose 97

            These geese used to be lumped with Canada geese as four smaller subspecies, sometimes as small as a mallard, and are showing up more often.

Canada Goose 1,148

            These may be a mix of a non-migratory local flock and some migrating here when there’s open water.

Snow Goose 1

            Oh no – is this species of goose thinking about wintering here too?

Mallard 354

Northern Shoveler 8

Redhead 1

Ring-necked Duck 2

Green-winged Teal 22

Common Goldeneye 7

Gadwall 2

Rock Dove (pigeon) 129

            There’s a much larger flock in northeast Cheyenne that eluded us.

Eurasian-collared Dove 181

Wilsons’s Snipe 3

            They know where there’s a spring providing open water.

Northern Harrier 5

Sharp-shinned Hawk 2

Cooper’s Hawk 1

Bald Eagle 4

Red-tailed Hawk 12

Rough-legged Hawk 4

Ferruginous Hawk 2

Eastern-screech Owl 1

Great-horned Owl 2

            Good showing of raptors, including the merlin and kestrel listed below.

Belted Kingfisher 2

            Always a couple along Crow Creek.

Downy Woodpecker 5

Hairy Woodpecker 1

Northern Flicker 15

American Kestrel 1

            Not all of them migrate farther south.

Merlin 1

Northern Shrike 2

Blue Jay 13

            This eastern bird continues to increase in numbers here.

Black-billed Magpie 80

            It should really be the state bird since it stays year round and cleans up carcasses.

American Crow 133

Common Raven 30

            Lorie Chesnut videoed a flock of 25. Jane Dorn, who studied ravens for her masters degree, said young birds may flock, otherwise, ravens hang out in ones and twos. To tell them apart from crows, listen for the raven’s croak compared to the crow’s caw. Also, when flying, the raven’s tail looks like the point of a diamond. The crow’s looks like a half-circle fan. Crows are only 17.5 inches from beak tip to tail, ravens are 24 inches.

Black-capped Chickadee 14

            I need to more careful in assuming all the chickadees I see are mountains and check for their white “eyebrows,” which the black-cappeds don’t have.

Mountain Chickadee 22

Horned Lark 9

Red-breasted Nuthatch 4

White-breasted Nuthatch 4

Brown Creeper 2

            These are very hard to see. They are like a moving piece of bark on a tree trunk.

European Starling 444

Townsend’s Solitaire 10

            This relation of the robin is more slender and is all gray. It likes to sit at the tip top of trees, especially junipers, eating their berries.

American Robin 5

            Every year there are a few that winter here. We aren’t sure if these birds spent the summer here or if these are birds that came from farther north.

Cedar Waxwing 6

            Waxwings only show up when they find fruit still on the tree or shrub so seeing them is very lucky.

House Sparrow 432

House Finch 119

American Goldfinch 2

American Tree Sparrow 42

            In summer, small flocks of sparrows are often chipping sparrows. But they leave in fall and the tree sparrows come for the winter.

Dark-eyed Junco 59

Song Sparrow 2

            They are almost always year round, by a creek.

Bushtit 10

            This is the flock our Christmas Bird Count compiler, Grant Frost, has been watching this fall. We are happy they stayed for their first count here. If they make it through the winter, they might decide to stay and make a state breeding record.

Pine Warbler 1

            This is the same bird that has been hanging out in Chuck Seniawski’s backyard this fall. Nice it could stick around and provide a count record.

Golden-crowned Kinglet count week

            Not an unusual bird in winter, but there are not many to be seen, plus they are tiny and not noticeable in the treetops where they hang out.

Barb Gorges is the author of “Cheyenne Birds by the Month,” www.YuccaRoadPress.com. Her previous columns are at https://cheyennebirdbanter.wordpress.com. Contact her at bgorges4@msn.com.

Be a Community Scientist

At Lions Park last December while on the Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count, Mark Gorges uses a scope to count geese resting around open water on Sloans Lake, Dennis Saville looks for hawks in the distance and Pete Sokolosky checks overhead for songbirds on tree branches. Photo by Barb Gorges.

Audubon Rockies’ Zach Hutchinson discusses community science

Published Nov. 4, 2022, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

By Barb Gorges

            Zach Hutchinson is Audubon Rockies’ community science coordinator. He is currently located in Casper, although he plans to relocate to Cheyenne as soon as local real estate prices are realistic.

            He spoke at Cheyenne Audubon’s October meeting about community science, which started out being called “citizen science.” The new name is more inclusive – you don’t have to be a U.S. citizen to participate – or be a college-educated scientist.

            Zach said community science contributed to Bird Migration Explorer, https://explorer.audubon.org/. I’ll have more about this new endeavor in a future column.

            Community science has also contributed data to the State of the Birds 2022 report, www.stateofthebirds.org/2022.

            Most groups of birds, including our grassland birds, are still losing population, while others increased during the last couple decades. For instance, waterfowl increased because they benefitted from concentrated efforts by sporting groups, although you don’t have to be a hunter to buy a Federal Duck Stamp to contribute.

            This year’s report highlights North American species that are at the “tipping point” which means, after having lost 50% or more of their population since 1970, the report said, “These 70 species are on a trajectory to lose another 50% of their remnant populations in the next 50 years if nothing changes.”

            Thirteen of those tipping point species occur in Wyoming regularly, either as residents or migrants, some considered common and others uncommon on this scale: abundant, common, uncommon, rare. I didn’t include the species that are rare in our state in this list of 13:

Greater Sage-Grouse

Western Grebe

Rufous Hummingbird

Mountain Plover

Long-billed Dowitcher

Lesser Yellowlegs

Red-headed Woodpecker

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Pinyon Jay

Evening Grosbeak

Black Rosy-Finch

Chestnut-collared Longspur

Bobolink

The primary causes of downward population trends are:

1. Habitat loss.

2. Cats (2.6 billion birds a year).

3. Windows, (624 million).

4. Vehicle collisions (214 million).

5. Industrial collisions, including wind turbines (64 million).

Zach went over the seven ways we can help birds:

1. Make windows safer day and night.

2. Keep cats indoors.

3. Reduce lawn, plant natives.

4. Avoid pesticides.

5. Drink shade-grown coffee.

6. Protect our planet from plastic (Think of waterbirds mistaking floating plastic for food.).

7. Watch birds, share what you see.

For more about each point, see www.birds.cornell.edu/home/seven-simple-actions-to-help-birds/.

“Watch birds, share what you see,” means taking part in community science. Zach said this is how we find out about population trends, range expansion, and if there are losses, we can see where in the life cycle it happens so that action can be focused.

You’ve probably heard me talk about www.eBird.org before. Birdwatchers submit lists of birds they’ve seen, anywhere and anytime, using smart phones or computers.

I can delve into the data on the website and discover 272 species have been observed at the Wyoming Hereford Ranch headquarters, 216 at Lions Park and 151 at the High Plains Grasslands Research Station where the Cheyenne Arboretum is located.

Zach Hutchinson releases a hummingbird. Photo courtesy of Zach Hutchinson.

The Christmas Bird Count is the most famous annual community science project, with this year’s being the 123^rd.

Two years ago, Zach said, 80,000 people took part, counted 2,355 species (world-wide), and travelled 500,000 miles on foot, by skis and by other means. Check https://cheyenneaudubon.org/  to find out about participating in the Cheyenne count in December.

The Great Backyard Bird Count, a snapshot of where birds are in late winter, celebrated its 24th anniversary last February. In 192 countries, 384,641 people participated and 7,099 species were counted on 359,479 checklists submitted. It’s held over Presidents’ Day weekend. 

Zach runs bird banding stations every summer and people sign up to help (https://rockies.audubon.org/). Birds are caught in fine “mist nets,” and then are measured and banded.

This year, 54 species were netted at Zach’s stations. Usually, 500 new birds are banded but this summer it was only 340, probably because the drought has affected breeding and recruitment, Zach said.

Audubon Rockies launched a new community science project last summer on the Yampa River in Colorado. People on commercial float trips, including Zach, counted birds: 55 species and 732 individual birds. Stopping for a few minutes in a calm eddy in otherwise inaccessible places to count birds will add richness to the tourists’ experiences and give science a new perspective.

There are other community science endeavors, such as iNaturalist, which is interested in plants as well as animals. Some have been very specific, such as The Lost Ladybug Project.

Bird banding provides data on demographics, productivity, recruitment (adding individuals to the population) and survival – when a bird previously banded is recaptured, or a band is recovered from a dead bird.

Consider becoming a community science participant in one or more ways.

Addendum: How could I forget Project FeederWatch? Go to feederwatch.org to sign up for reporting your backyard birds this winter. This year, Project FeederWatch tells me Mark and I have counted for 24 seasons.

Volunteering 40 years

The celebration of Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society’s 40th anniversary in September 2014 included a birding field trip to the Wyoming Hereford Ranch. Photo by Barb Gorges.

Audubon volunteer reflects on last 40 years

Published Oct. 7, 2022, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

By Barb Gorges

            Forty years ago this month, October 1982, I attended my first Audubon meeting—as president.

            My husband of one month, Mark, had been the first president the previous two years of a new chapter, the Rosebud Audubon Society. It covered Miles City and southeastern Montana.

            Mark and his friends wanted to start an environmental club and Audubon appealed to them, especially birdwatching field trips.

            Miles City in 1980 had 9,600 people (2020 census, 8,300). The closest other incorporated town is Forsyth, 46 miles west, population 1,600 today. The closest big city is Billings, 146 miles west, population 66,000 then and 117,000 today.

We were very creative in finding programs for our monthly meetings. We had natural resource professionals to call on from the offices in town: Custer County Conservation District, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Fort Keogh Research Station and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, as well as Miles Community College.

We could also borrow films from Audubon’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Boulder, Colorado. First it was those big reels in metal cans, later VHS cassettes.

Our early newsletters were typed, duplicated, folded, stuffed into envelopes with address stickers and stamps applied. Later, we did without the envelope.

Mark took me on my first Christmas Bird Count two months later. We were covering some area near either the Tongue or Yellowstone rivers which converge outside town. It was zero degrees. Because Mark, the wildlife biologist, was better at bird i.d., I got to keep the list—with pencil and paper. I couldn’t manage them without taking off my mittens and it was soon painful. A few years later we took our older son along, using snowdrifts as diaper changing tables.

The chapter got involved in local projects, city parks, if I remember. I don’t have the old newsletters—but we used to mail a copy each month to the state archives.

Then in 1989, Mark took the fisheries biologist job with BLM’s state office here in Cheyenne, a big city which presumably would have a big Audubon chapter where we could simply volunteer for a committee or two.

Cheyenne High-Plains Audubon Society was founded in 1974 and celebrated its 40^th anniversary in 2014. But in 1989 it was at a low point. The founders were tired. We finally met them at the 1989 Christmas Bird Count tally party.

To revive the chapter, Mark volunteered to be vice president, I volunteered to be program chair and 10 other people stepped in to fill other positions. In the 33 years we’ve been with Cheyenne Audubon, Mark has been president 9 years and me 7.

Cheyenne is a great location for finding speakers for monthly programs. In addition to all the county, state and federal offices corresponding to the ones in Miles City, we are less than an hour’s drive from the University of Wyoming and graduate students looking for audiences.

National Audubon’s regional office was still in Boulder in the 1990s and staff would come up to visit. Later, it was abolished and we had our own state office in Casper. That’s gone now and we work with staff at the regional Audubon Rockies office in Fort Collins.

We have members who can do travelogs of their nature-based trips. And there are staff from several other environmental organizations in town to speak about issues. We host speakers seven times a year.

I started writing this column in 1999 and thanks to Cheyenne Audubon, I’ve never lacked for topics beyond the birds in my backyard.

The chapter has grown. We now average 150 dues-paying members per year with another 300 friends on our email mailing list (see www.CheyenneAudubon.org).

We’ve lobbied local, state and federal governments on environmental issues. We add our expertise to city park and conservation district plans. We offer educational and conservation grants. We invite the public to join us for our programs and monthly birdwatching field trips. We are planning our ninth Habitat Hero workshop in February.

After 40 years, newsletters are digital, programs can be offered in-person and virtually, field trip bird lists are entered on the eBird phone app and grant money seems to be attracted to us. We work hard to get it spent on worthwhile projects that support our view that what is good for birds and other wildlife will be good for us too.

What hasn’t changed is the need to speak up for the welfare of birds, other wildlife and people. New threats to our mutual health and safety seem to show up every day. But at least watching birds gives us mental health breaks. Those birds and the people who love them have taught me a lot these last 40 years.

Bird feeding safety

A northern flicker enjoys pecking at a block of sunflower and millet seed. The block is also popular with downy woodpeckers, mountain chickadees and nuthatches. Photo by Mark Gorges.

Published Dec. 11, 2021, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Bird feeding safety: clean feeders, cat fencing, glass obstruction

By Barb Gorges

            Winter is the most popular season for feeding birds. The Project Feederwatch season runs early November into April. See https://feederwatch.org/ to join anytime and add your sightings.

The Christmas Bird Count has a feeder-watching component too. See https://cheyenneaudubon.org/ to find out how to take part for free in the local count Dec. 18.

            Watching birds from your window is an entertaining and affordable, even educational hobby to lighten long winters. But please keep safety in mind.

Cleanliness

            Whether you choose a tube feeder, hopper feeder (looks like a little house), cage (for blocks of seed or suet) or platform feeder, make sure it is scrubbable.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology recommends every two weeks taking feeders apart and brushing out all the detritus and washing them in a diluted bleach solution. You can use your dishwasher instead. Rinse feeders well and let dry thoroughly before refilling.

Wear gloves when handling dirty feeders or wash your hands afterwards.

Seed that gets wet can harbor mold and bird diseases. If you notice any finches with disfigured faces, it’s time to take down all your feeders for a week to temporarily disburse (social distance) the flock while you get them clean.

The one best seed—most nutritious and most popular—for our local seedeaters is black oil sunflower seed. But unless you can afford to buy hull-less, you will have moldering hulls below the feeder. If you feed one of the bird seed mixes, there are a lot of seeds in it our birds won’t eat, and they also end up making a kind of mat you’ll want to rake up regularly. At our house we hang the feeders over the patio and sweep often.

Finches like nyjer (“thistle” that doesn’t sprout) seed. It is very fine, requiring tube feeders with smaller holes or a fabric “sock.” The hulls are tiny and blow away. If you put out suet, make sure the weather is cold to keep it from going rancid—or dripping.

Downy woodpeckers are usually seen searching tree bark for dormant insects, but they also enjoy pecking at blocks of seed. The red spot on the back of its head indicates this is a male. Photo by Mark Gorges.

Window strikes

            Birds have a hard time identifying glass. They see the reflection of sky and vegetation, smack into your window and die or are severely injured, becoming a snack for other animals. Or if two of your windows on opposite sides of your house line up, they may think they can fly through.

            Your regular window screens can break the reflection and soften the impact. There are other strategies and stickers that can be stuck to the outside of the glass (see https://abcbirds.org/glass-collisions/stop-birds-hitting-windows/).

The easy strategy is to place your feeders within three feet of your favorite bird-watching window—or even stick a suction-cup feeder on the window itself. That way, when the sharp-shinned hawk startles your flock, none of them will be moving fast enough to hurt themselves bumping into the window.

Cats

            Our cats love bird-feeding season. They sit on the windowsill for hours, entranced. But if you haven’t made your felines into indoor cats yet like Lark and Lewis, please don’t feed the birds.

 What about the neighbors’ cats? That’s tricky. You might be able to convince neighbors that indoor cats are safer, healthier and more fun and that they could then take up bird feeding like you.

Realistically, you are going to have to cat-proof your birdfeeding station. While it is good to have cover, shrubs and trees, near your feeder so seed-eating birds can escape hawks, you don’t want it so close cats can pounce on birds feeding on the ground.

You might try encompassing the area under the feeder, where the birds feed on the ground, with a short fence—one you can step over. The idea is that while a cat can sneak up on a flock unobserved, having to leap the fence will give the birds the visual warning they need to escape.

Water

            Water is another way to attract birds–if you can keep your winter birdbath clean. It also has to stand up to freezing and thawing (unless you add a heater) and it needs to be easy to remove ice from or clean, like a flexible plastic trash can lid.

            Birds should be able to reach the water when perched on the rim. Or if there is a sloping edge or sloping rock, birds will also be able to walk in for a bath.

Squirrels

            Our fox squirrels are entertaining, but they can destroy birdfeeders and scarf down all your birdseed. We have a tube feeder that shuts down when any animal heavier than a finch sits on it.

            Funnel-shaped barriers can be mounted on the pole below a feeder and/or placed over the top of a feeder, especially one that is hanging. Our feeders hang from the underside of our patio roof.

            You can also distract squirrels by feeding them peanuts nearby.

A white-breasted nuthatch approaches a feeding port on a tube-type bird feeder. The weight of squirrels or big birds like starlings on the feeder pulls the cage down and the metal leaves block the ports. Photo by Mark Gorges.

Timing

            Decide how much seed you can afford. Put seed out at the times of day you are most likely to enjoy watching your feeder. Being consistent will bring the most visitors, but if your seed isn’t available, the flock will move on to one of their other regular daily stops.

More information

            The Feederwatch.org website is a fantastic free resource. You can find out what birds are seen in our area, each species’ favorite foods and the best types of feeders for each.

Comparing southeastern Wyoming Christmas Bird Counts

December 2020 Southeastern Wyoming Christmas Bird Counts compared

By Barb Gorges

Mark Gorges, birding at the Wyoming Hereford Ranch, participates in the Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count Dec. 19, 2020, with all the equipment of the modern birder, including binoculars, camera for documenting unusual birds and smart phone with eBird app for keeping the list of birds seen. Photo by Barb Gorges

            There are many variables affecting the number of birds and bird species seen on the Christmas Bird Count. Weather is a big one. Dec. 19, the Cheyenne counters met up with strong winds that put a damper on small bird numbers. None of us were mean enough to shake them out of the bushes.

Count compiler Grant Frost and some of the other 13 participants were able to find a few of the missing species count week (three days before and after the count day) when the wind moderated.

            A week later the weather was “spitty” with snow squalls, reported Jane Dorn, compiler for the Guernsey – Ft. Laramie Christmas Bird Count Dec. 27. Mark and I planned to drive up and help the five participants, but over the years we’ve had iffy weather like that turn into white-knuckle driving, so we stayed home.

Although both CBCs are in southeast Wyoming, Cheyenne is 80 miles south as the crow flies and, at 6063 feet, 1700-1800 feet higher than Guernsey and Ft. Laramie. The topography is different too. 

            As I read through Jane’s list, I could imagine where the birds were. The bald eagles and ducks would have been on Greyrocks Reservoir, which was open—unlike Cheyenne’s much smaller lakes which were pretty much completely frozen.

            The many robins and solitaires would be at Guernsey State Park, in the junipers and pines in the hills. Goldfinches, siskins and nuthatches would have congregated at feeders in Hartville and the belted kingfisher would be somewhere along the North Platte River or the Laramie River, at Fort Laramie National Historic Site or at the Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site. Raptors could have been anywhere—there’s a lot of unobstructed sky in the 15-mile diameter count circle.

            The number of people, how long they are out counting and how much distance they cover, whether by human propulsion or vehicle, makes a difference. That’s why, if you get into the scientific use of CBC data, the bird numbers are statistically shaped by these effort factors.

            The lists for both counts are combined below, Guernsey-Ft. Laramie in italic numbers for species also seen in Cheyenne, and with names and numbers in italics for species not seen in Cheyenne. The abbreviation “cw” is for birds seen “count week.”

            The list starts out with one of the outstanding birds seen, the greater white-fronted goose (the forehead is white). Grant found it at Lions Park. It pays to examine every bird in a flock of Canada geese.

This individual was late in migrating from its Arctic breeding grounds. Since it is a nearly circumpolar arctic species, it would be interesting to see if any of them are found this late between breeding and wintering ranges—in the middle of Eurasia.     

Cheyenne CBC

Dec. 19, 2020

33 species total plus 8 count week

Guernsey-Ft. Laramie CBC

Dec. 27, 2020

47 species total plus 3 count week     

Greater White-fronted Goose 1

Cackling Goose 10, 48

Canada Goose 1339, 3,387

American Wigeon 2

Mallard 182, 441

Domestic (White) Mallard 1

Green-winged Teal 53

Common Goldeneye 3, 1

Hooded Merganser 5

Common Merganser 213

Wild Turkey 75

Rock Pigeon 145, 1013

Eurasian Collared-Dove 81, 138

Great Blue Heron 1, 1

Golden Eagle 1

Northern Harrier cw  

Sharp-shinned Hawk cw        

Northern Goshawk cw           

Bald Eagle 7

Red-tailed Hawk 4, 2

Rough-legged Hawk 1, 2

Great Horned Owl 1, cw

Belted Kingfisher 1, 3

Downy Woodpecker 3, 1

Hairy Woodpecker 1

Northern Flicker 8, 21

American Kestrel 2, 5

Merlin 1

Prairie Falcon cw

Northern Shrike 1

Stellar’s Jay 8

Blue Jay 2, 22

Black-billed Magpie 26, 14

American Crow 90, 5

Common Raven 7, 1

Horned Lark 15

Black-capped Chickadee 48

Mountain Chickadee 7, 13

Golden-crowned Kinglet cw

Red-breasted Nuthatch 6, 11

White-breasted Nuthatch 1, 7

Pygmy Nuthatch 1

Brown Creeper 5

Canyon Wren 1

Marsh Wren 1

European Starling 167, 181

Townsend’s Solitaire 3, 81

American Robin cw, 541

House Sparrow 244, 9

House Finch 37, 60

Cassin’s Finch cw

Red Crossbill 2

Pine Siskin 4, 33

American Goldfinch cw, 38

American Tree Sparrow 9, 4

Dark-eyed Junco 30, 66

            Slate-colored – 9

            Oregon – 5

            Pink-sided – 19

White-crowned Sparrow cw, 12

Song Sparrow cw, 4

Red-winged Blackbird 23

3 billion birds missing

Both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks show declines.

We know how 3 billion breeding birds disappeared in last 48 years

By Barb Gorges

            “Decline of the North American avifauna” is the title of the report published online by the journal Science on Sept. 19, 2019.

            The bird conservation groups I belong to summed it up as “3 billion birds lost.”

            In a nutshell (eggshell?), there are three billion fewer, 29 percent fewer, breeding birds of 529 species in North America then in 1970.

            The losses are spread across common birds, like western meadowlark, as well as less common birds, in all biomes. While the grasslands, where we live, lost only 720 million breeding birds, that’s 53 percent—the highest percentage of the biomes. And 74 percent of grassland species are declining. Easy-to-understand infographics are available at https://www.3billionbirds.org/.

            Two categories of birds have increased in numbers: raptors and waterfowl. Their numbers were very low in 1970 due to pesticides and wetland degradation, respectively. Eliminating DDT and restoring wetlands, among other actions, allowed them to prosper.

                The 11 U.S. and Canadian scientists crunched data from ongoing bird surveys including the North American Breeding Bird Survey, the Christmas Bird Count, the International Shorebird Survey, and the Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Database.

Weather radar, which shows migrating birds simply as biomass, shows a 14 percent decrease from 2007 to 2017.

            Two of the contributors to the study are scientists I’ve talked to and whose work I respect. Adriaan Dokter, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is working with me, Audubon Rockies and the Roundhouse developers. We want to see if weather radar can predict the best nights to shut down wind turbines for the safety of migratory birds passing through the wind farm they are buiding at the southwest corner of I80 and I25.

            I’ve met Arvind Panjabi, with Bird Conservancy of the Rockies headquartered in Ft. Collins, Colorado, on several occasions. BCR does bird studies primarily in the west as well as educational programs. 

            How does the number of birds make a difference to you and me? Birds are the easiest animals to count and serve as indicators of ecological health. If bird numbers are down, we can presume other fauna numbers are out of whack too—either, for instance, too many insects devouring crops or too few predators keeping pest numbers down. Ecological changes affect our food, water and health.

            The decline of common bird species is troubling because you would think they would be taking advantage of the decline of species less resilient to change. But even invasive species like European starling and house sparrow are declining.

The biggest reasons for avian population loss are habitat loss, agricultural intensification (no “weedy” areas left), coastal disturbance and human activities. Climate change amplifies all the problems.

A coalition including Audubon, American Bird Conservancy, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies and Georgetown University have an action plan.

7 steps we can all take to help birds

            There are seven steps we can all take. The steps, with details, are at https://www.3billionbirds.org/. Most of them I’ve written about over the last 20 years so you can also search my archives, https://cheyennebirdbanter.wordpress.com/.    

1. Make windows safer. Turn off lights at night inside and outside large buildings like the Herschler Building and the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens during migration. Break up the reflections of vegetation birds see in our home windows during the day.

2. Keep cats indoors. Work on the problem of feral cats. They are responsible for more than two-thirds of the 2.6 billion birds per year cats kill.

3. Use native plants. There are 63,000 square miles of lawn in the U.S. currently only attractive to birds if they have pests or weeds.

4. Avoid pesticides. They are toxic to birds and the insects they eat. Go organic. Support U.S. bill H.R. 1337, Saving America’s Pollinators Act. Contact Wyoming’s Representative Liz Cheney and ask that registration of neonicotinoids be suspended. Birds eating seeds with traces of neonics are not as successful surviving and breeding.

5. Drink shade-grown coffee. It helps 42 species of migratory North American birds and is economically beneficial to farmers.

6. Reduce plastic use. Even here, mid-continent rather than the ocean, plastic can be a problem for birds. Few companies are interested in recycling plastic anymore.

7. Do citizen science. Help count birds through volunteer surveys like eBird, Project FeederWatch (new count season begins Nov. 9), the Christmas Bird Count (Cheyenne’s is Dec. 28), and if you are a good birder, take on a Breeding Bird Survey route next spring.

To aid grasslands in particular, support Audubon’s conservation ranching initiative, https://www.audubon.org/conservation/ranching.

In a related Science article, Ken Rosenberg, the report’s lead author, says, “I am not saying we can stop the decline of every bird species, but I am weirdly hopeful.”

Western Meadowlarks are also in severe decline. Audubon Photography Awards 2012, photographer’s name not available.

Two Christmas Bird Counts 80 miles apart compared

Not many birds on the high plains outside town for the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Christmas Bird Count when it is barely 10 degrees. Photo by Barb Gorges.

 

 

 

Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle Jan. 14, 2018, “Two Christmas Bird Counts–80 miles apart–compared,

Also published at Wyoming Network News. 

By Barb Gorges

I took part in two different Christmas Bird Counts last month.

The Guernsey-Fort Laramie 7.5-mile diameter count circle is centered where U.S. Hwy. 26 crosses the line between Goshen and Platte counties, halfway between the towns. Guernsey’s population is 1,100, Fort Laramie’s is 230, while the Cheyenne count is centered on the Capitol amidst 60,000 people.

All of the species in the combined list below have been seen on previous CBCs in Cheyenne, except for the canyon wren.

Guernsey is 80 miles north of Cheyenne, but 1600 feet lower. Cheyenne’s few small reservoirs were nearly entirely frozen this year. However, within the other count circle are Guernsey Reservoir, on the North Platte, and part of Grayrocks Reservoir on the Laramie River There was more open water on the day of that count, Dec. 17, so you’ll see more ducks listed compared to Cheyenne’s, held Dec. 30.

The cliffs along the North Platte have juniper trees with berries, attracting lots of robins and solitaires. Cheyenne, on the other hand, has lots of residential vegetation and more bird feeders.

There were 16 people on the Cheyenne count, about 10 on the other. We take the same routes every year and statistical analysis of time and distance travelled smooths things out for scientists using our data.

Jane Dorn, the compiler for the Guernsey-Fort Laramie count, includes certain subspecies in her reports when possible. Of her 14 northern flickers, one was yellow-shafted (yellow wing-linings), like the flickers in eastern North America.

Dorn also sorts out dark-eyed juncos. Of the 33 on her count, eight were slate-colored (the junco of eastern North America), one was white-winged (range centered on the Black Hills) and three were Oregon. The other 21 were either difficult to see or hybrids—the reason there are no longer multiple species of juncos with dark eyes.

Dorn had four adult and two immature bald eagles. Those of us coming up from Cheyenne missed a chance for seeing them when we skipped Greyrocks Reservoir while delaying our trip two hours for black ice on I-25 to melt.

The weather for the Cheyenne count put a damper on the number of songbirds out in the morning when we have the most people participating. Dec. 30 was when everything was thickly covered in fluffy ice crystals. Serious birders shrugged off the 7-degree temperature and were rewarded with beauty. By lunch time, I was shrugging off layers to keep cool when the day’s high reached 56 degrees.

Cheyenne count compiler Greg Johnson noted raptors were well represented this year, with 10 species observed, the rough-legged hawk the most abundant with 13 seen, and the two merlins the most unusual.

Johnson said, “Three lingering red-winged blackbirds were visiting a feeder at the Wyoming Hereford Ranch. Otherwise, no unexpected or rare species were observed.”

Guernsey – Fort Laramie (Dec. 17, 2017) and Cheyenne (Dec. 30, 2017) Christmas Bird Count Comparison

Bold – species seen both counts

Regular – species seen Cheyenne only

Italic – species seen Guernsey – Fort Laramie only

G-FL   Chey.

6          —        Western Grebe

2877    1259    Canada Goose

2          —        Cackling Goose

67        76        Mallard

2          1          Common Goldeneye

45        —        Green-winged Teal

1          —        Bufflehead

285      —        Common Merganser

cw        —        Killdeer

6          1          Bald Eagle

cw       5          Northern Harrier

3          6          Red-tailed Hawk

—        1          Ferruginous Hawk

—        13        Rough-legged Hawk

1          1          Sharp-shinned Hawk

—        1          Cooper’s Hawk

1          —        Golden Eagle, Adult

6          3          American Kestrel

—        2          Merlin

1          1          Prairie Falcon

11        —        Wild Turkey

7          —        Ring-billed Gull

333      463      Rock Pigeon

159      83        Eurasian Collared-Dove

—        1          Great Horned Owl

1          —        Eastern Screech Owl

4          1          Belted Kingfisher

7          2          Downy Woodpecker

1          —        Hairy Woodpecker

14        5          Northern Flicker

2          —        Northern Shrike

1          4          Blue Jay

3          46        Black-billed Magpie

11        168      American Crow

2          32        Common Raven

12        37        Horned Lark

31        —        Black-capped Chickadee

3          3          Mountain Chickadee

2          1          White-breasted Nuthatch

7          7          Red-breasted Nuthatch

—        1          Pygmy Nuthatch

cw        —        Brown Creeper

1          —        Canyon Wren

58        6          Townsend’s Solitaire

144      5          American Robin

202      353      European Starling

—        35        Unidentified waxwing

7          —        Cedar Waxwing

8          —        American Tree Sparrow

3          —        Song Sparrow

33        30        Dark-eyed Junco

—        7          Unidentified blackbird

—        3          Red-winged Blackbird

27        40        House Finch

16        —        Pine Siskin

102      10        American Goldfinch

cw       139      House Sparrow

Cottonwood trees full of birds held our attention along a slough off the North Platte River on the Guernsey – Ft. Laramie, Wyoming, Christmas Bird Count. Photo by Barb Gorges.

Citizen science makes difference

“Citizen Science” by Mary Ellen Hannibal, published 2016, recognizes contributions of volunteers collecting data.

Published May 14, 2017, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, “Citizen science meets the test of making a difference”

By Barb Gorges

Birdwatchers have been at the forefront of citizen science for a long time, starting with the Christmas Bird Count in 1900.

Today, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is leading the way in using technology to expand bird counting around the globe. Meanwhile, other citizen science projects collect information on a variety of phenomena.

But is citizen science really science? This question was asked last December at the first Wyoming Citizen Science Conference.

The way science works is a scientist poses a question in the form of a hypothesis. For instance, do robins lay more eggs at lower elevations than at higher elevations? The scientist and his assistants can go out and find nests and count eggs to get an answer [and no, I don’t know if anyone has studied this].

However, there are hypotheses that would be more difficult to prove without a reservoir of data that was collected without a research question in mind. For instance, Elizabeth Wommack, curator and collections manager of vertebrates at the University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates, studied the variation in the number of white markings on the outer tail feathers of male kestrels. She visited collections of bird specimens at museums all over the country to gather data.

Some kestrels have lots of white spots, some have none. Are the differences caused by geography? [Many animal traits are selected for (meaning because of the trait, the animal survives and passes on the trait to more offspring) on a continuum. It could be north to south or dry to wet habitat or some other geographic feature.]

Or perhaps it was sexual selection—females preferred spottier male tail feathers. Or did the amount of spotting lead directly to improved survival?

Wommack discovered none of her hypotheses could show statistical significance, information just as important as proving the hypotheses true. But at least Wommack learned something without having to “collect” or kill more kestrels.

Some citizen science projects collect data to test specific hypotheses. However, others, like eBird and iNaturalist collect data without a hypothesis in mind, akin to putting specimens in museum drawers like those kestrels. The data is just waiting for someone to ask a question.

I know I’ve gone to eBird with my own questions such as when and where sandhill cranes are seen in Wyoming. Or when the last time was I reported blue jays in our yard.

To some scientists, data like eBird’s, collected by the public, might be suspect. How can they trust lay people to report accurately? At this point, so many people are reporting the birds they see to eBird that statistical credibility is high. (However, eBird still does not know a lot about birds in Wyoming and we need more of you to report your sightings at http://ebird.org.)

Are scientists using eBird data? They are, and papers are being published. CLO itself recently published a study in Biological Conservation, an international journal for the discipline of conservation biology. [See http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716301689.] Their study tracked requests for raw data from eBird for 22 months, 2012 through 2014.

They found that the data was used in 159 direct conservation actions. That means no waiting years for papers to be published before identifying problems like downturns in population. These actions affected birds through management of habitat, siting of disturbances like power plants, decisions about listing as threatened or endangered. CLO also discovered citizens were using the data to discuss development and land use issues in their own neighborhoods.

CLO’s eBird data is what is called open access data. No one pays to access it. None of us get paid to contribute it. Our payment is the knowledge that we are helping land and wildlife managers make better decisions. There’s a lot “crowd sourced” abundance and distribution numbers can tell them.

Citizen science isn’t often couched in terms of staving off extinction. Recently I read “Citizen Scientist, Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction,” by Mary Ellen Hannibal, published in 2016. She gave me a new view.

Based in California, Hannibal uses examples of citizen science projects there that have made a difference. She looks back at the early non-scientists like Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck who sampled the Pacific Coast, leaving a trail of data collection sites that were re-sampled 85 years later. She also looks to Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist E.O. Wilson, who gives citizen science his blessing. At age 87, he continues to share his message that we should leave half the biosphere to nature—for our own good.

Enjoy spring bird migration. Share your bird observations. The species you save may be the one to visit you in your own backyard again.

Keeping citizen scientists happy

Citizen scientists were recruited by the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (now the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies) to look for Flammulated Owls in the Medicine Bow National Forest in southern Wyoming in the summer of 2005. Mark and I are standing in front of the sign.

Published Nov. 13, 2016, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, “Turning Citizens into Scientists”

Note: The first Wyoming Citizen Science Conference is being held Dec. 1-3, 2016, in Lander. All current and would-be citizen scientists studying birds or any other natural science are welcome. See http://www.wyomingbiodiversity.org.

How to keep a citizen scientist happy

By Barb Gorges

A year after I married my favorite wildlife biologist, he invited me on my first Christmas Bird Count.

It was between minus 25 and minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit that day in southeastern Montana, with snow on the ground. He asked me to take the notes, which meant frequently removing my thick mittens and nearly frostbiting my fingers.

I am happy to report that 33 years later, my husband is the one who takes the notes and the Christmas Bird Count has become a family tradition, from taking our first son at eight months old and continuing now with both sons and their wives joining us.

The Christmas Bird Count started in 1900 and is one of the oldest examples of citizen science, sending ordinary people (most are not wildlife biologists) out to collect data for scientific studies.

In 1999, I signed up for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch and have continued each year. Last season 22,000 people participated. In 2010 I started entering eBird checklists and now I’m one of 327,000 people taking part since 2002. And there are nearly a dozen other, smaller, CLO projects.

It is obvious CLO knows how to keep their citizen scientists happy. Part of it is that they have been at it since 1966. Part of it is they know birdwatchers. That’s because they are birdwatchers themselves.

How do they keep us happy? I made a list based on my own observations—echoed by an academic paper I read later.

First, I am comfortable collecting the data. The instructions are good. They are similar to something I do already: keeping lists of birds I see. The protocol is just a small addition. For instance, in eBird I need to note when and for how long I birded and at least estimate how many of each species I saw. It makes the data more useful to scientists.

Second, I am not alone. The Christmas Bird Count is definitely a group activity, which makes it easy for novice birders to join us. I especially love the tally party potluck when we gather to share what the different groups have seen that day.

Project FeederWatch is more solitary, but these days there are social aspects such as sharing photos online. Over President’s Day weekend when the Great Backyard Bird Count is on, I can see animated maps of data points for each species. On eBird, I can see who has been seeing what at local birding hotspots.

Third, I have access to the data I submitted. Even 33 years later, I can look up my first CBC online and find the list of birds we saw, and verify my memories of how cold it was in December 1983.

The eBird website keeps my life list of birds and where I first saw them (OK, I need to rummage around and see if I can verify my pre-2010 species and enter those). It compiles a list of all the birds I’ve seen in each of my locations over time (89 species from my backyard) and what time of year I’ve seen them. All of my observations are organized and more accessible than if I kept a notebook. And now I can add photos and audio recordings of birds.

A fourth item CLO caters to is the birdwatching community’s competitive streak. I can look on eBird and see who has seen the most species in Wyoming or Laramie County during the calendar year, or who has submitted the most checklists. You can choose a particular location, like your backyard, and compare your species and checklist numbers with other folks in North America, which is instructive and entertaining.

I would take part in the CBC and eBird just because I love an excuse to bird. But the fifth component of a happy citizen scientist is concrete evidence that real scientists are making use of my data. Sometimes multiple years of data are needed, but even reading a little analysis of the current year makes me feel my work was worthwhile and helps me see where my contribution fits in.

What really makes me happy is that I have benefitted from being a citizen scientist. I’m a better birder, a better observer now. I look at things more like a scientist. I appreciate the ebb and flow of nature more.

If you have an interest in birds, I’d be happy to help you sort through your citizen science options. Call or email me or check my archival website listed below, or go to http://www.birds.cornell.edu.