Christmas Bird Count Info

    Hello, and welcome to my blog. As I said on Groupme, there is far too much info for me to cover on the Groupme site. I know there was a lot of interest over the winter by many people wanting to join existing CBCs. Here is my plan and answers to many questions. I apologize in advance how long this is but I wanted to put it all in one place.

  Obviously, this was a bad year to join an existing CBC. The pandemic made it so count leaders keep the teams as close to a skeleton crew as possible. One of the most fun parts of a CBC is carpooling with others on your team. You get to talk about birds and have a few laughs between stops. This year, carpooling was obviously banned so that alone changed the whole dynamic of the count.

   At the end of the count day, at least one person from each section usually goes to a meeting place where all of the birds are tallied up. For the South Kingstown count it s the South Kingstown Police Station. For the Westport Count it is a church in Tiverton. These meetings are fun and there is usually food or drink provided. This was cancelled this year due to the pandemic taking away one more fun thing about the CBC. Everyone just gave their worksheets to the leader when they were done. 

   Two other things I noticed from questions- the first was people that wanted to add their feeders to counts. Although you would think it is helpful and you are contributing, it really isn't. CBC's are important because they show year to year and decade long trends. The most important thing is consistency.  You would want the same places counted year after year. So if twenty people add their  feeders to the count this year, it would throw off the year-to year numbers of chickadees, titmouse, etc...

   The other thing I want to address is nepotism. Being on the outside looking in and wanting to contribute, it can feel like CBC's are a "who you know" event. You are kind of right but not for reasons you think. Remember, some of these counts are decades old. So the people that run them have had the same friends help out for years. As I've said, and for the reason you want to help, CBC's are fun. So the people that have done them, do them year after year. It becomes a tradition to do your part of the circle. So, if the same people don't move away or die off, it is tough to join a Count Circle. After addressing that, I will need a lot of people if I were to run a count, so getting your foot in the door will benefit me very much. More on that near the end. 

   Christmas Bird Count (CBC from now on) isn't a town or a county. According to the National Audubon Society a CBC is a fifteen mile diameter circle (or a 7.5 mile radius from a center point). So all of the locations/birds have to be in the count circle. I can not, for instance just choose to do a CBC for Providence and Cranston. The count has to be in the circle. There needs to be a center point 7.5 miles from the circumference. This is why the Westerly count spills over to Connecticut and why the South Kingstown Count covers Narragansett. The name is just the name.

    As I posted on Groupme, I would like to start a count in Providence. I spent an hour one night trying to find a center point that would cover as many good spots as possible. I could not just drop a pin in downtown Providence, say City Hall for instance. If I did, there would be too much boring birding in Rehoboth and Seekonk on one side of the circle. On the other, the circle would overlap the Scituate count and that would not be good. So in my hour of trying to figure out a pinpoint that really works, A pin in the Providence River just south of Sabin's Point would cover a lot of good birding. To the northeast Swan Point would be covered. To the east would be Warren Reservoir and Barrington. Colt State Park would be covered. To the sw, Goddard State Park is in the circle. Finally, to the west, the line would end right before the Scituate CBC circle. This could work out very well.

   If I were to start a Providence Area CBC, there are some logistical problems other counts do not have. Driving through Providence, Warwick, and Cranston can be a nightmare. Comparing those towns to the nice smooth driving on Rt 1 and Rt 2 in South Kingstown, going from Point A to B will take longer. This is also an obstacle for a central meeting place in the morning and one for a (hopeful) evening count. These are things I have plenty of time to work out.

  If I were to do a Providence Count, I can not officially add it to National Audubon's list of counts until September. To start a new count I need ten committed counters. But truthfully, I would not even consider it unless the number of people was much closer to twenty. Despite being so urban, there are some very large pockets of public land (Roger Williams Park, Colt and Goddard State Parks, Swan Point, etc. As I've already said a couple times the fun part of the counts is the comradery. Either birding with friends or meeting new ones is a big part of the count. I would want "teams" to bird locations and wouldn't want to have people bird alone. Long before September I'd like to have a list of names committed to the count. But if I do, I will be happy to register a new Providence Bird count.

   Here is the thing for me, to pull this off  I will need to do a lot of work. In my vision, I'd like to count every possible public access. In addition to those large places I mentioned above, a public access spot can be a pull off by a lake where you can count ducks. Barrington has a Land Trust with many tracks. Providence has small parks. East Providence and Warwick have bike paths and all these towns have parks and places to fish. All can be counted. This will take A LOT of scouting by me and any of my friends I drag along. I don't mind this scouting, but it will take many evenings after work and/or days off to scout these spots for access. I DO NOT MIND DOING THIS AND LOOK FORWARD TO THE CHALLENGE, I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE IT IS NOT IN VAIN AND WILL HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE TO MAKE THE COUNT A SUCCESS. In addition to Groupme, I plan on inviting members of the Ocean State Bird Club. 

  We all know there "is no I in Team" but I can assure you, there is an "I" in "contribute". There are few things in birding more rewarding than contributing to a CBC. In my first count while waiting for Mike Tucker while it was still dark, I heard killdeer at Pardon Gray. When Mike got there I made him listen. It turned out they were the only Killdeer found during the entire count. Last year after I separated from Jan St Jean to find the Kestrel in the fields near Trustom I found a Chat. This South Kingston count after three of us failing to find a Saltmarsh Sparrow in Succotash Marsh I stopped near the blue house where I found five Greater Yellowlegs. Scott Tsagarakis was a few minutes behind me I waved him down to show him. The point is, anyone can contribute to a count. And I welcome anyone that wants to help.

  Lastly, and I was upfront about this on Groupme, It will be impossible to do a count on a Saturday  and very unlikely on a Sunday. The counts have to be done within a certain timeframe I believe Dec 13-Jan 4. All those Saturdays and some Sundays are filled up with existing counts. Secondly, I work every Sunday. Though I'm no one special, I can't just call out. Four different employees get Sunday's off while I cover for them. So I'd have to change four different people's schedule just to get one day off, which is unlikely during the holidays. So a Providence count would most likely be on a Friday. This is obviously not a problem for retired people, but I understand this is a problem for 9 to fivers. If you have a leftover vacation/personal/or sick days you can't carry over, maybe a Friday CBC would be a nice start of a long weekend. I wish weekend days were ore of an option but with all the other counts and my schedule, it is very unlikely.

   So, here is your mission if you choose to accept it. If you really think you can join the count please DM me on the Groupme site. Please send a message that says you can do or not do both a Friday or Sunday. It would look something like this

Friday yes

Sunday no

   Or whatever days you are available. If you have any other questions you can DM me those also. Like I said the timeframe would be mid-December to the first week of January. Please only reply if you are 90% confident this is something you can do. I don't want to scout all these places thinking I'll have twenty five helpers but twenty back out the last minute. Luckily for me, I have access to a lot of advice. Dan Berard, who runs the Scituate Count is the president of the bird club which I am a board member. Also, Scott Tsagarakis who runs the South Kingstown Count is one of birding buddies and has been very helpful so far in giving me advice. I'm sure having them to guide me can and will help make the count a success. As I mentioned above, the point of CBC's are to see year to year trends. So a one time count is worthless. Assuming I have enough participants, I plan on doing this count for many years. So if you help out, your foot won't just be in the door, you will be in the count year after year if you want. 

If nothing else, thanks for reading this and your interest in a Providence Area CBC is appreciated.