Audubon birdwatchers out in force for annual bird count
FAIRFIELD — A yellow-and-black Townsend’s warbler peeked out amid the branches of a pine tree near Jameson Canyon, apparently oblivious to the joy it generated among five birdwatchers below.
The birdwatchers stood along the narrow rural road called Spurs Trail. They’d put up with fog and finger-numbing cold Monday morning, but glimpsing a Townsend’s warbler helped reward the effort.
“Really pretty,” “nicely colored” and “they’re harder to find,” the birdwatchers said.
Pleasure mixed with business on this morning. The group added Townsend’s warbler to an ever-growing list that included birds ranging from red-tailed hawks to American coots, then set about finding still more birds.
Similar scenes played out within a 177-square-mile section of southern Solano County in the Benicia, Vallejo, Suisun Marsh, Green Valley and Cordelia areas. About 100 birdwatchers participate each year in the Napa Solano Audubon Society’s Benicia Christmas Bird Count.
The Benicia count is part of the nationwide Audubon Society bird count that takes place from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5, 2012. The Audubon Society uses the data to assess the health of bird populations.
Karen Sheldon of Fairfield led this particular group, which started its bird-counting effort at 7 a.m. in Green Valley. By 9:15 a.m., it had reached Spurs Trail, a rural road extending from Highway 12 into a canyon amid the hills.
Sheldon’s father, a member of the Marin Audubon Society, introduced her to birdwatching when she was a child, to no avail. She thought it boring, she remembered with a laugh.
“I guess when I was in my 20s, it finally clicked that it was something I enjoy doing,” she said.
Oliver James took a different path to birdwatching, one that has the Berkeley resident participating in six bird counts this year, including his Monday stint with Sheldon’s group.
“I’m 20 years old. I’ve been birdwatching since I was 5,” he said as he searched for birds on Spurs Trail.
He pointed out two Eurasian collared-doves sitting on a utility pole. This type of non-native dove came to Solano County only over the past four or five years after rapidly spreading from the southeastern United States, he said.
In fact, the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count has helped document the spread of the Eurasian collared-dove. The bird is native to such places as Turkey and southern China. It got introduced to the Bahamas in the late 1970s, showed up in Florida in the late 1980s and has since steadily expanded its range across North America, according to the society.
Sheldon’s group kept on the move, driving in a red Volvo with the windows open and periodically stopping along Spurs Trail. The birdwatchers stopped near a horse barn and near a rush-lined pond where the sun began to shine through the fog. They saw scrub jays, American goldfinches, a Northern flicker and a Hutton’s vireo. But they never lingered in one place along Spurs Trail, even though a couple of spots had a variety of birds that they clearly enjoyed observing.
“It’s kind of frustrating to leave when you know there’s so much going on,” Sheldon said as she headed back to the car.
But they had to keep going. They had places such as an old quarry to visit before 4:30 p.m.
The Christmas bird count was on and they had more birds to count at other locations.
Reach Barry Eberling at 427-6929, or beberling@dailyrepublic.net.
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=118659
Posted by Barry Eberling
on Dec 19 2011.
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Great story of citizen science. Nearly 100 people participated.
Wow, I just get in my car and see birds everywhere I go!
Anyone can do that, but they are not identifying them to species nor reporting their findings to Audubon for scientific analysis.