Enderis Park Bird Watching Club - CBC (Christmas Bird Count)

The National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is an early-winter survey of birds. The CBC is a 2-week period of time (around Christmas) where birders across the country spend (at least) 8 hours in a single day (in a specially designated area assigned to them) counting the birds and species they encounter.  How is works is that a person looks at a "group" of birds for a couple minutes and "counts" the numbers in the species.  It is better if two (or more) people are together looking at that same group of birds and counting so that a consensus can be reached, but one will do.  Any number of people that go out counting in a single area are considered a "group" (from 1-100).  Although counts occur in Central and South America, most CBCs occur in North America. The sample area for a count is a circle that is 15 miles in diameter, and varying numbers of volunteers count all birds they see in the circle during a single day, which is within 2 weeks of 25 December. (Butcher 1990) Although this analysis only considers the interval 1959 - 1988, the CBC was begun in 1900. The number of circles and participants has changed dramatically since the early years. Butcher (1990) notes that 1,508 circles were surveyed in 1986-1987.

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The Enderis Park Bird Watching Club made its inaugural debut into the world of "Bird Counting" this year by participating in the Christmas Bird Count of 2006.  With the busy Christmas season upon us all, it was fortunate that even two of our members could carve out some time to help with the count.

Katharine Reid and I (Joseph Devereaux) set out at 7:00 AM into the 35 degree (snow-less) Milwaukee air.  {The area that was counted is designated as "Area 16" and has boundaries from Capitol Drive on the North, North Avenue on the South, 76th Street on the West and 43rd Street on the East.} The first destination for the day was Dineen Park.  Dineen Park is part of the Milwaukee County Park system.  It has a large swimming pool, Frisbee golf course as well as the typical playground equipment and tennis courts.  This park includes a large 1/2 acre drainage-fed lagoon and outflow.  The surface of the (1/4 frozen water) was dotted with many Mallard Ducks and Canada Geese.  The balance of the park land featured a variety of bird species; Junco, Cardinal, House Sparrow, Crow, Nuthatch, Chickadee and Goldfinch.

Area 16 includes two cemeteries; Holy Cross and Lincoln Memorial (formerly Wanderer's Rest).  Both Katharine and I were surprised to see that (for the most part) the cemeteries were bereft of birdlife.  The three most notable exceptions were a pair of Red-Bellied Woodpeckers in the top of a tall pine (in Holy Cross) and the huge "murder" of over 75 American Crows and single White-Throated Sparrow in Lincoln Memorial.  Gray Squirrels however, seemed to be plentiful and rampant throughout the grounds.

Overall the single most interesting observance of the day had to do with where the birds seemed to be congregating in the greatest numbers; anywhere there were bird feeders.  On the surface, this nugget of wisdom seems to be a no-brainer, however it was without question the single most determining factor in concentration of bird life.  If single a home had seeds outside, this had an effect on the surrounding houses and the likelihood that they too would have birds visiting their shrubbery.  The converse was also true; if no one in the area was feeding, there were no birds observed. Here are the results of our Area 16 CBC:

Katharine had to leave the count at approx. 11:30 AM and I finished the day alone.  I drove to the beautiful Schlitz Audubon Center (on East Brown Deer Road) and at 4:00 PM, turned in our count to 2006 CBC volunteers; Jean Strelka and Marilyn Bontly.  We estimated that we had walked a total of 10 miles and had driven 12 within our area that day.  I totally enjoyed my time and look forward to doing it again next year. 

Thanks to Jean Strelka for the Tylenol, and to Marilyn Bonly for the peanuts, cheese and crackers and Trader Joe's spiced apple cider.  Overall, the weather was very nice and there were plenty of birds to count too.  Perhaps more of you will consider doing this next year?