The First-Ever Tri-County Audubon Christmas Bird Count

Two years ago we did a post about the first-ever Underhill-Jericho Christmas Bird Count. You can read our post, along with some history of the Audubon CBC, here.

Then two things happened. COVID scuttled plans for a 2020 bird count, and we heard from Audubon that we had to move our count circle to avoid overlapping existing circles. (CBCs have been around for 122 years. They're all done by volunteers who count birds within 15-mile diameter circles.) 

So it was back to the drawing board - in this case, Judy Bond's drawing board. Judy is part of our count circle and is a retired cartographer, and she prepared a beautiful map showing our circle and color-coded travel routes.

The new circle includes parts of Chittenden, Lamoille and Franklin Counties. We were disappointed that Jericho Center was no longer included, but we were delighted that so many wonderful locations opened up north and west of here: Westford, Milton, Fairfax, Fletcher, Cambridge and Jeffersonville, as well as parts of Jericho and Underhill. Our new circle also included Arrowhead Mountain Lake, the Lamoille River, and several town forests and conserved areas.

On December 16, 2021, 27 birders covered 313.7 miles driving, 20.55 miles walking, and 1 mile biking (a rarity for Christmas Bird Counts!). These travelers spent a total of 66 hours, much of the time on dirt roads that looked and felt like spring mud season.

In addition, 21 birders spent a total of 20.8 hours counting birds at their feeders. This group included two teachers and 8 students at The Barn School in Westford, who had put up feeders and studied birds in preparation for the day.

Count Day was unusually warm, with blue skies and temperatures reaching the mid-fifties. There was no snow, and nothing was frozen.

That made for comfortable (if squishy) walking, but feeder watchers reported that many birds seemed to be finding natural food rather than coming close to houses to eat at feeders. 

Nevertheless, we saw 42 species of birds in all, and a grand total of 2741 individual birds!

The High Count Winners, hands down, were 632 European Starlings ...

and 441 Black-capped Chickadees.

Other birds that were seen in big numbers were American Crows (354), Rock Pigeons (245), Mallards (150) and Cedar Waxwings (130).

Cedar Waxwing

Birders that day also tallied 114 Mourning Doves, 104 House Sparrows, 102 American Goldfinches, and 101 Blue Jays.

Mourning Dove

Between 11 and 99 of the following species were seen: White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, Northern Cardinals, Wild Turkeys, Dark-eyed Juncos, Eastern Bluebirds, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Common Ravens, Ring-billed Gulls, Red-tailed Hawks, and House Finches.

Tufted Titmouse

People are sometimes surprised to see bluebirds in the winter but they often stick around, especially in years when there's been a good crop of wild grapes, ornamental crap apples, and other small fruits for them to eat.

Other species weren't as easy to find, with totals between 2 and 10: American Black Ducks, Golden-crowned Kinglets ...

... Red-breasted Nuthatches, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Ruffed Grouse, Brown Creepers, Bald Eagles, Pileated Woodpeckers, and American Tree Sparrows. (The last was somewhat surprising. Tree Sparrows are regulars at many backyard feeders but seemed to be sticking to the woods on Count Day.)

American Tree Sparrow

The eagles were a treat! One was seen by a birder walking the trails at The Farm Between, and the other two were at Arrowhead Mountain Lake. All three were adults, with their white heads and tails glowing in the sun!

And there were some singletons: Red-bellied Woodpecker, American Robin, Winter Wren, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Cooper's Hawk, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Canada Goose, and Common Merganser.

A day in the sun and warmth, lots of wonderful birds, the knowledge that we were helping scientists track changing trends in bird populations - and views of Mt. Mansfield from an unfamiliar angle!

If you'd like more information, or if you're interested in joining the Tri-County Audubon Christmas Bird Count for 2022, please contact Maeve.