!@#
I recall some dark hour before winter sunrise a decade ago when Larry
McQueen was leading his team westward from Eugene. He said he always treated
his participation in a CBC like a real job. I had never heard the sentiment
articulated before, and it really resonated with me that day. It is this level
of mental commitment that kept me from doing two counts back to back for many
years. I seriously doubted I could do nearly as good a job the second day .
Illness struck both counts I was headed to this New Year's weekend and
seriously thinned the ranks, yet both Yaquina Bay and Coquille Valley recorded
one of their best counts ever. It's not nearly as much the number of observers
as their experience that matters. I really wanted to back out of Coquille for a
variety of reasons, I'm glad I didn't. For me personally it was about as good a
count as I've known.
I'm glad Dave brought up the nature of the Portland count. 200 field
participants doesn't mean a surplus of talent waiting to be shunted to Forest
Grove. But public interest in the event is at an all time high. A fairly
lengthy piece aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting last Friday as I was driving
to Newport. Then it aired on Jefferson Public Radio Monday morning as I was
driving home from Coos County. Several issues come to mind. No program director
is likely to air such a piece around Thanksgiving, when we should be reaching
out to these beginning birders and offering them the proposed beginners'
counts/workshops. I hate to discourage participation. But it's a real challenge
in today's fragmented media to reach people.
The radio piece ruffled a few feathers among Obol and Boo subscribers
because of its excessive attention to climate change. I suspect this may have
been an editorial decision, not the reporter's idea. There are many other uses
for the data generated by CBCs, and the anecdotal can be pretty poignant as
well. The species first mentioned on the radio show was Peregrine. I thought
that might be a bit campy, the instant appearance of a charismatic mega-faunid
right out of the starting blocks. The sort of thing an editor is going to want.
But what was my own experience this year? As our team converged at 8am Sunday
in a Coquille parking lot, a Peregrine flew straight toward us, straight
overhead. Most folks had been out of their cars for seconds. And on the
Corvallis count as Fred Ramsey and I prepared to look for cowbirds on an
organic farm at the circle's edge, a Peregrine landed on a walnut tree right
above our heads. It seemed to be eager to catch our attention, receive our
admiration. I realize now that on all four counts I did this year, my team
detected Peregrine. When I did my first count in 1971 or 72 I wonder if any
count in Oregon recorded a Peregrine?
Further reflection reminded me that every team I was on this year
recorded Bald Eagle, and always in numbers in excess of the
Red-tailed Hawks we counted. Not an apocalyptic vignette of birds turned
climate refugees, but evidence for optimism. A lot of content editors deciding
what we get to listen to were not born when DDT was banned in the US, leading
to the wonderful recovery of many birds high up the food chain. CBCs can amply
document this good news. What about White-breasted Nuthatch numbers? I'm sure a
review of the Eugene CBC totals over its history would reveal a substantial
decline. Other western Oregon counts might show the same. But this doesn't
prove doomsday, just a changing landscape in a static count circle. During that
same time Cackling Geese went
from none to tens of thousands. Are they scaring the nuthatches away?
Citizen science is a pleasant bi-product of the CBC. To date it has not
been its focus. For all participants it is a deeply personal thing, and the
radio segment in question did a good job of telling us so. The Forest Grove and
Sauvie's Island counts cover some of the best bird habitat in Oregon.They have
a long history. It would be too bad for citizen science if they ceased to
exist. I did Forest Grove
twice in the past and enjoyed it immensely. If I do it again it will be for
purely personal reasons, not out of a sense of civic duty.
Lars
