In the late 1800s, passenger pigeons weren’t the only bird species teetering on the edge of extinction.

Commercial market hunters were slaughtering some 5 million birds every year to supply feathers for the hottest fashions in women’s hats. There was also an old holiday tradition called the Christmas “Side Hunt,” when teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds and small game in a single day. They would then pose for photographs by wagons heaped with dead birds and small mammals.

With growing concern about the threatened extinction of some of our most beautiful birds, Audubon clubs started forming in many states to help save them.

Back then, the shotgun was indispensable for anyone who studied birds, including John James Audubon. But his publication of 435 paintings of North America birds inspired generations of bird and nature lovers. He became the namesake for a new movement that culminated in the founding of the National Audubon Society in 1905 and the Migratory Bird Act in 1918.

Ornithologist Frank M. Chapman was one of the movement’s leading champions. He was passionate about protecting birds, and created the first federal bird sanctuary. His Bird Lore magazine eventually became the National Audubon Magazine. Alarmed by the mass slaughter of so many bird species, Chapman proposed counting birds instead of shooting them. His first count in 1900 involved 27 dedicated birders in 25 locations, and their combined tally was 90 species.

Now in its 118 year, the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count has become the longest-running bird census on the planet. Last year, some 76,669 volunteers counted birds in 2,505 count circles. Their 2016 tally totaled 58,878,071 birds.

The counts have become an invaluable source of data used by scientists to monitor population trends and the effects of climate change on shifting ranges.

Kitsap Audubon has been conducting the annual Kitsap County CBC without interruption since its founding 44 years ago. This 15-mile diameter circle encompasses most of Kitsap County, from Manchester to Poulsbo, and from Seabeck to Bainbridge Island.

But Kitsap County birders have lamented the fact that the traditional Kitsap County circle excluded some of the county’s premier birding hotspots. An adjoining circle in North Kitsap was opened in the 1980s, and then abandoned. Scott Downes revived it in 1997, but it became dormant again when he moved away in 1999.

This year, Kitsap Audubon will once again sponsor both Christmas Bird Count circles in Kitsap County, and is inviting volunteers to sign up for either or both events:

Annual Kitsap County (Traditional) Christmas Bird Count, Dec. 16.

Revived North Kitsap/Port Gamble Christmas Bird Count, Dec. 30.

For information, contact genebullock@comcast.net or call 360-394-5635.

Next month: How the Kitsap Christmas Bird Count works, and how to sign up.

— Gene Bullock is newsletter editor for the Kitsap Audubon Society. Contact him at genebullock@com cast.net.