It’s Christmas … time to count some birds

Only a few shopping days remain before Christmas and most men have not started shopping yet while some women have started their third or fourth round of the stores. This is the time of excitement for a lot of folks; including area birders.

“The Christmas Bird Count is exciting for us,” said Darren Clark, the compiler of the Rexburg area count. “Every year something shows up that shouldn’t be here at this time. But due to the weather, birding has been really slow this year, hopefully we will get some snow before the count here in Rexburg.”

The Rexburg count will be conducted on December 26 with the Idaho Falls count happening today (December 19) and the Howe count will be later and set according to weather.

“We need five routes and like to have from two to four people in each group,” said Clark.

Each route must have a driver and an observer who tallies all the birds that are seen. It also helps if there are at least one or two more observers to help spot the birds. The Rexburg count will begin at Burger King at 8 a.m. the day after Christmas and will last until about 4 p.m. Beginners that have an interest in birds are encouraged to become involved and each participant will be responsible for their own lunch.

Interested individuals in the Rexburg count should contact Clark by email at: darrenclarkbird@gmail.com while anyone interested in helping in Idaho Falls or Howe counts can contact Mark Delwiche at 525-9414.

Areas are divided into “Count Circles” around certain areas. Each year birders tally the numbers of each specie observed in these areas to submit to the Audubon Society to track bird populations. The CBC has been going on for over 100 years and is a valuable tool in determining the status and long-time health of the birds.

Local trends in bird populations can indicate problems with some species of birds.

Data collected gives researchers and conservation biologists a picture of how bird populations have changed in the last century. It also can show the bird diversity between two neighboring areas.

Last year the Rexburg circle provided 362 Trumpeter swans while Idaho Falls had 451 which was uncharacteristic as Rexburg usually has many more than it sister city.

“We generally have between 200 to 400 trumpeter swan,” said Clark. “This is usually one of the highlights of our count.”

Another interesting group of birds between the two circles are doves. In the 2014 counts both Idaho Falls and Rexburg had three Mourning doves, but a problem is the explosion of Eurasian Collared doves that have invaded to entire United States in the last few years.

In the 2008 count Rexburg had 154 of this invasive specie with Idaho Falls counting only 40. By last year those numbers had grown to 870 in Rexburg and 1426 in Idaho Falls, becoming the second highest specie numbers behind the European starlings, another foreign invader.

There has been a friendly competition between the two local circles to see who can identify the most species of birds. Last year Rexburg topped Idaho Falls with 70 species compared to 56.

If you would like to join an enthusiastic group searching for birds, the Christmas Bird Count compilers, Clark and Delwiche, are looking for help. You might even find “turtle doves or partridges in a pear tree.”

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