Chicadees the Winners
At 1st Local Bird Count

On Saturday, Dec. 15, the first Randolph Christmas Bird Count was conducted by 24 local birdwatchers. Below-zero temperatures at sunrise tended to reduce bird activity in the morning, but by the end of the day more than 1500 individual birds representing 30 species had been tallied.

The Christmas Bird Count is considered North America’s largest bird census, begun in 1900 as an alternative to the traditional Christmas tradition of the "side hunt," in which teams competed to see how many birds they could shoot. Instead, observers took to the field to identify and count birds, thus founding an effort that today involves more than 57,000 volunteers throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The numbers of birds recorded by this cadre of citizen scientists, which totaled more than 62 million in last year’s CBC, is collated by the National Audubon Society, providing important information on the status of individual species.

Each count is conducted within a designated 15-mile diameter circle. In Vermont there are 16 count circles, the oldest being the Bennington Count which was first held in 1903. The Randolph Count included most of the towns of Braintree and Randolph, as well as sections of Bethel, Tunbridge, Brookfield, Rochester, and Royalton.

Due to the early-season snow cover, most participants elected to drive assigned roads in search of backyard feeding stations, where the majority of birds were found. Among birds attracted to feeders was the familiar black-capped chickadee, the most numerous on the day with over 440 tallied. But some of the more unusual species were found away from feeders, including northern goshawk, pileated woodpecker, northern shrike, and over 100 wild turkeys. Many of the participants were excited to add pine grosbeaks to their list, a bird normally inhabiting boreal regions that has irrupted in Vermont this season due to reduced food supplies in Canada.

A lone barred owl provided some excitement as the last bird of the day when it was seen roosting along Route 66 by several observers on their way to Vermont Technical College where the final tally was made.

The full list of birds recorded on the Randolph CBC included: Ruffed Grouse (1), Wild Turkey (117), Sharp-shinned Hawk (3), Northern Goshawk (1), Red-tailed Hawk (2), Rock Pigeon (121), Mourning Dove (115), Barred Owl (1), Downy Woodpecker (34), Hairy Woodpecker (28), Pileated Woodpecker (1), Northern Shrike (4), Blue Jay (128), American Crow (64), Northern Raven (12), Black-capped Chickadee (443), Tufted Titmouse (27), Red-breasted Nuthatch (5), White-breasted Nuthatch (26), European Starling (153), American Tree Sparrow (30), Chipping Sparrow (1), Dark-eyed Junco (13), Snow Bunting (64), Northern Cardinal (17), Pine Grosbeak (59), Common Redpoll (85), American Goldfinch (4), Evening Grosbeak (2), House Sparrow (10). In addition, Common Merganser and Brown Creeper were seen the day before, but not on count day.

Participants in the Randolph CBC were Susan Banta, Don and Betty Anne Babcock, Jon Binhammer, Ingrid Boette, Ted and Dillon Buttner, Jeffery Collins, Rick and Suzanne Enser, Patsy French, Linda Garrett, Betty Hyde, Mark and Lisa Jewett, Brian Lowe, Tom and Joyce MacNair, Angelo Odato, Peter Scully, Mary, Sandy, and Melissa Stephen, and Jake Stewart.

Organizers were pleased with the effort and are already looking forward to next year’s count. They hope to encourage more people to participate, especially "feeder watchers" who can report their birds from home.

Also, there is increased interest in providing birding and natural history field walks and surveys during other seasons in the Randolph area. Those interested in more information about the CBC or other events can contact Rick Enser at rickenser@yahoo.com, or at 431-0063.