By GENE BULLOCK

Kitsap Audubon

Undeterred by an all-day rain, 75 Kitsap Audubon volunteers spent the day, Dec. 20, counting birds. Kitsap Audubon CBC compiler Janine Schutt reported that the day counted 124 species of birds.

It was Kitsap Audubon’s 40th annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The official 15-mile diameter circle is centered at the intersection of Fairgrounds Road and Stampede Boulevard, and covers most of Kitsap County, from Seabeck to Bainbridge Island and Poulsbo to Port Orchard.

Kitsap Audubon sends eight teams of observers out to count birds in defined areas within its CBC circle. A ninth owling team, led by Bainbridge Island owl researcher Jamie Acker, sets out soon after midnight.

Data from some 2,300 count circles throughout the Western hemisphere allows ornithologists and others to monitor the fluctuations, range and movement of bird populations across North America and beyond.

The annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count is a tradition that began 115 years ago. In 1900, there was mounting concern that many species of birds were being hunted to the brink of extinction by market hunters for their meat and feathers.

For decades, hunters also celebrated the holidays with a traditional “side hunt,” when teams competed to see which could kill the most birds and game in a single day. Dr. Frank Chapman, an officer in the fledgling National Audubon Society, suggested a new Christmas tradition of counting birds, instead of killing them.

He could not have imagined the phenomenal scale of its success and importance since then. Today, it involves an estimated 70,000 observers. It’s the largest, longest-running census and citizen science project on the planet.

Scientists have grown to rely on the trend data gleaned from the annual Christmas Bird Count to understand how birds and the environment are faring and what we can do to protect them.

The local results are often affected by the weather. This year’s rain-splattered lenses made it harder to see and count the birds. As one observer joked, unlike us, many birds had the good sense to hunker down someplace out of the wind and the rain. Another joked that maybe it should be called the Christmas Blurred Count.

While many birds migrate farther south for the winter, lots of species hang out here all winter. A variety of shorebirds and waterfowl winter in protected coves, inlets and tidal estuaries along the Washington coast. Serious birders consider winter a peak time to bird.

The Kitsap CBC often produces a few surprises. This year’s highlight was a Yellow-billed Loon, found on the Hood Canal by Scott Hall. Because of changing climate, several species are now fairly common, which were considered rare for this region a decade or two ago, such as Western Scrub Jay, European Collared-Dove, Barred Owl and Anna’s Hummingbird. Wintering flocks of Western Grebe used to number in the thousands; but have declined dramatically with declines in herring stocks.

Citizen science, such as the Christmas Bird Count, plays a valuable role in helping document change and formulate policies; but the main reason the CBC has become so popular is because it’s fun.

— Gene Bullock organized the Kitsap Audubon annual Christmas Bird Count for 10 years. This year, Janine Schutt was the official compiler, responsible for compiling and submitting results to National Audubon’s CBC website.