Trixie Strauss Christmas Bird Count: A national tradition of citizen science

The 2022 Trixie Strauss Christmas Bird Count (CBC), organized by the Sharon Audubon Center, started Dec. 18 at 5 a.m. with a quest to draw the owls out of hiding. Moonlight and the crunch of snow underneath our feet gave the morning a lunar tone, and with warm beverages in tow, we made our way across the Sharon Audubon Center’s property.

Led by Bethany Sheffer, volunteer coordinator and naturalist at Sharon Audubon, we were on the hunt for barred, great horned, screech, and “the heart-meltingly adorable” saw-whet owls.

Rather than hoping to luck into a sighting, birders attempt to peak the curiosity of local owls by playing or vocalizing their various calls. Often, this draws them near or elicits a hoot in response. Sheffer gave Laura Marris, a volunteer on our early-morning voyage, a Bluetooth speaker, which Marris held aloft like a banner as hoots and trills emanated from it across the landscape.

As the sun began to rise and no owls had yet been heard, Sheffer offered measured wisdom.

“You know the birds are there, it’s just a matter of them showing up on the actual day.”

The Trixie Strauss CBC is one among the hundreds of bird counts organized as a part of the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count. In Sharon, a Christmas count has taken place since at least 1961, but the CBC can trace its roots in the U.S. all the way back to 1900, putting it in its 123rd consecutive year. For a sense of how the tradition has grown, during last year’s CBC, 1,871 distinct counts took place across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. This year’s should be no different.

Groups that participate in the Christmas count must conduct it between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5, and each count covers a 15-mile wide circle of territory. On the designated day, volunteers divvy into groups that follow specific routes within those 15 miles. Those groups then venture forth and record as many birds as they can for as many hours as they are able.

Sheffer, captain of the South Sharon route for the past three years, reported that she had stayed up until 1 a.m. the previous night baking cookies for volunteers, which did little to hold her back during the 14-hour day. As we trekked through trails and drove along back roads, knowledge dispensed included tips and tricks for identification, the possible benefits of pair bonding for bird species, the habits of river otters, and the patterning of holes drilled by yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Paired with the stunning scenery at Sharon Audubon, it was a treat.

Birding through the countryside

From the Center, we hopped into a minivan and made our way to the Benton Hill Preserve, where a pair of sharp-shinned hawks were spotted, then onto Troutbeck before looping back along the Mill Brook river. On the quiet roads of the Northwest Corner and eastern Dutchess County, Sheffer would pull off to the shoulder and roll down the windows, from which our birding binoculars and large telephoto lenses would extend. Looking, probably, to passersby like some mysterious surveillance crew, we scoured the landscape for signs of wing and feather.

Keen-eyed Mackenzie Hunter, former intern at Sharon Audubon, made many seemingly impossible roadside sightings, picking out the well-camouflaged plumage of perching red-tailed hawks and Carolina wrens from a tangled and woody backdrop. A quick flash of red, black and white alerted us to a Pileated Woodpecker, which we peered at for nearly 10 minutes.

As Sheffer, Hunter, Marris and I covered our route, 22 other volunteers and Sharon Audubon employees were out and about on similar adventures. Citizen science efforts like the Trixie Strauss CBC rely on community participation en mass to collect data that, over the span of decades, can paint a picture of macro-level changes occurring to bird populations.

As a result of the differing skill levels of volunteers — all are encouraged to join the Trixie Strauss CBC — these data sets cannot necessarily be relied upon for more granular study. But according to Zachary Adams, data compiler for the Trixie Strauss CBC, the length and size of the Christmas Bird Count is what makes the information precious to the scientific community.

“It serves as this really big, long-term data set, and we just don’t have many data sets that compare … It can be used to say, ‘Oh, there are noticeable changes in this giant data set,’ which can spawn a whole new set of questions for future study.”

During the 2021 Christmas Bird Count, 39,001,827 individual birds were observed across the nation, representing the collective work of 51,181 participants. If the initial numbers for 2022 are any indication — as of this writing, 274 counts were compiled, with 4,478,050 birds counted — the 123rd CBC will continue that tradition of robust citizen science.

Though the data contained within those numbers might be more telling on a macro level, Adams, speaking after the event, indicated that hints of interesting national trends are still visible within the data collected during the Trixie Strauss CBC.

“I definitely have noticed some of the trends that are talked about. We’ve had low counts of dark-eyed juncos, which, like almost every other forest-dwelling bird species, are in decline. Those changes are noticeable, just visually looking at the data.

“It’s likely that, this year, we’ll break our circle record for Carolina wren, northern mockingbird, and probably American kestrel and hermit thrush. So that’s four species that we might get high counts for, which is interesting for species that are right on the edge of their wintering range in Sharon. It’s possible that if those are increasing trends regionally or in the last 30 years, that there might be something to say about the winter populations of those species.”

Bird-bragging and evening chili

As the sun began to set, we in Sheffer’s group attempted to wring a last few hot spots out of the day, lucking into a local bird feeder where chickadees, nuthatches, downy woodpeckers and a few purple finches were among the species spotted.

After that, it was back to the Center to participate in the final tradition of the CBC: the evening count-up. Fueled with chili provided by Eileen Fielding, center director at Sharon Audubon, the roughly 10-15 participants left standing after a tiring day in the field gathered in the rustic and warm nature center to swap stories, brag about coveted sightings, submit data, and chow down.

As Adams ran down the list of species likely to show up during the winter season, each group would raise their hands if they had made a sighting. Certain birds, such as the red crossbill, elicited near-cheers while others, when no hands were raised, elicited murmurs, sighs or even an “Oh, wow, really?”

While endearing, these responses also tell a sad story. Many species native to the region, such as the American kestrel, have declined steeply in number over the previous century and into this one. Decimated by habitat loss and disrupted by the ecosystem changes brought on by invasive species, many birds beloved by birders are far rarer to spot than they once were.

The volunteers at the Trixie Strauss CBC seemed keenly aware of these trends. By and large well-informed enthusiasts with decades of birding experience under their belts and years of regional conservation efforts behind them, the CBC represents a compelling opportunity for such folk to both contribute to a growing understanding of the ecological shifts occurring across the country and also to witness those changes first-hand on the local level.

In spite of the existential concerns in the room, the atmosphere as the evening closed out was warm and familiar. As much as anything, the opportunity to share a love of birds and a passion for the natural world is what brought the community out in force. Adams, a bird enthusiast from a young age, spoke to feelings of connection that such traditions can engender.

“The Christmas Bird Count is happening in places all across the world, and that’s really cool. Just the fact that there’re so many people out birding in this window of time, you get this big connection with people. It’s fascinating.”

With all said and done, the species count for the day rang in at 79, far above the previous year’s total of 66 and a couple notches up from 2019’s total of 73. A cause for celebration? A single data point in a larger downward trend? We might not know for another couple of decades.

Bethany Sheffer and McKenzie Hunter on the lookout for a cedar waxwing. Photo by Elias Sorich

Birders in their trusty minivan. Photo by Elias Sorich

The evening roundup at the Sharon Audubon Center. Did anyone see a dark-eyed junco? Photo by Elias Sorich

Bethany Sheffer and McKenzie Hunter on the lookout for a cedar waxwing. Photo by Elias Sorich