Commentary by Christy Solo
This week I find myself still birdbrained— I mean, I have birds on the brain.
This happens to me this time of year every year, because the Great Backyard Bird Count is this coming weekend Feb. 13 – 16.
You may also notice – if you’re paying very close attention – that this week’s Rogue was published a wee bit late. This is because I tried and tried to think of something to write about that was not the GBBC.
Dear Reader, I failed. Birdbrained. So here we are.
For those who haven’t read me wax on about the GBBC before, it is sponsored by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society and Birds Canada it’s a worldwide bird counting event.
Here’s a brief description from the GBBC website, “Each February, for four days, the world comes together for the love of birds. Over these four days we invite people to spend time in their favorite places watching and counting as many birds as they can find and reporting them to us. These observations help scientists better understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations.”
Basically anyone can start an eBird account and fill in checklists with the species of birds they see over the four days and how many of each bird.
If you’d like to learn more – or even better – participate in this year’s count (we must show off how bird-tastic our little corner of the world is!) – go to the GBBC website here to learn all about participating.
I always go for the literal interpretation and count birds in my own yard. Many hardcore Oregonian birders spend the four days traveling around Oregon racking up as many bird species as they can.
It’s one of those times when being a highly competitive birder benefits science.
I’ll stick to my yard though. I started participating in the GBBC to showcase the avian diversity of the riparian zone, most years I’ve been ranked in the Top 10 for my county, so I’d say I’m proving my point.
L-R; T-B: Black-capped Chickadee, Lesser Goldfinch, Steller’s Jay, Anna’s Hummingbird. Photos by Christy Solo
More importantly though, it’s a great excuse to just sit in my yard for a few hours every day watching birds and taking photos. I can justify slacking off on work and house chores because it’s “for science”.
But counting birds is a lot like fishing “The worst day counting birds is better than the best day at the office” and all that.
Some years I’ve seen birds rare to our area, and that’s exciting. This year I haven’t seen anything “for the record books”, but I’ve faced the challenge of counting 51 individual Oregon Juncos in my yard and that’s a win for me.
As it goes every year, birds I see every, single day in my yard vanish for the four days of the GBBC. I never know which birds will go into hiding and refuse to be counted, well almost never. Every year without fail belted kingfishers go on a four day holiday at GBBC time.
This is without fail. They are in my yard all day every day for weeks leading up to the GBBC. Flying around calling their very loud rattling call and staying just out of range of my telephoto lens. But come GBBC time, they vanish. Not a call, not feather to be seen. If you recall, we don’t call them *&^%! Kingfishers for nothin’!
