Volume 1, Issue 31 DECEMBER 29, 2023
YOUR LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NONPROFIT NEWS SOURCE
Conservation District hosts Christmas Bird Count By Sharon Hallack
The Oceana Echo Community Contributor
count list.” “One person heard a Barred Owl for the first time in our count,” said Herremans. “Another of our experienced birders saw a Common Loon on Pentwater Lake using a scope. That sighting was way out of season.” “The long-term perspective is vital for conservationists. It informs strategies to protect birds and their habitat and helps identify environmental issues with implications for people as well,” said the NAS website. Herremans added, “It’s a great citizen science tool and a way for people to be involved. I love it (birding). There aren’t many hobbies where you can do it anywhere,” she said. “There are also opportunities for anyone interested in reporting bird sightings, regardless of where they live, through the www.eBird.org website or mobile eBird app. The app has increased people’s enjoyment of birding, but it should be a tool, not a crutch. We want people to learn to recognize birds on their own.” By using the app, bird watchers can report bird sightings every day of the year. Herremans says the app was very instrumental in compiling data for the OCD’s first (2017) and second (2019) published editions of “A Birding Guide to Oceana County, Michigan.” For those interested in getting their own copy of this special publication, visit oceanaconservation. org to purchase a copy or stop by the OCD’s office located at 1064 Industrial Park Dr. in Shelby, during regular business hours. “It’s a wonderful resource to find great places to observe birds in our county and see what birds have been documented as well as the seasons to expect them,” Herremans said.
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This year marked the 124th year of the National Audubon Society’s (NAS) Annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), but just the eighth year for Oceana County. The event hosted by the Oceana Conservation District first took place unofficially in 2016 and has been part of the NAS official counts since 2017. The annual census occurs annually each year between Dec. 15 and Jan. 5. Participating groups are free to select any date during that time frame to hold their counts. Oceana County’s 2023 Christmas Bird Count took place this year on Dec. 14. “It’s a big undertaking, but we have a great core group. We were getting ready to publish our first birding book in 2016 and realized we didn’t have a lot of historical data. We were ‘under-birded’. We began with a trial year in 2016, and in 2017, we registered as an official ‘circle’ with NAS, the first in Oceana County,” said Lynda Herremans, Oceana Conservation District’s MAEAP Technician and the CBC Coordinator for Oceana County. “We’ve been doing an official Audubon CBC every year since.” Annual Christmas Bird Counts take place every year within the same 15-mile radius circles between Dec. 15 and Jan. 5 all across North America. “They (NAS) let us pick the circle we wanted. We knew we wanted it to be completely in Oceana County and to include areas we’d identified as ‘hot spots’, where birds congregate. The center point of Oceana’s CBC circle is Mears, and goes seven and a half miles in every direction to form our circle. It includes the City of Hart, as well as the villages of Shelby, Mears and Pentwater,” Herremans said. “We are also allowed to pick the day we hold the count. As coordinator, I compile all our data and send it to the national database.” According to the NAS website, the history of the annual census began with concerns about declining bird populations. “Prior to the turn of the 20th century, hunters engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas ‘Side Hunt.’ They would choose sides and go afield with their guns—whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won. “Conservation was in its beginning stages in that era, and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, an early officer in the then-nascent Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition—a “Christmas Bird Census” that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them,” the
website said. The OCD publicizes the county’s annual CBC every year in its newsletters and website. Those interested in taking part need to be registered so they can be assigned a location. According to Herremans, this year’s count included 20 individuals with seven field scouting teams. Each team is made up of one to four people each, with at least one experienced birder per team. Feeder watchers are also used, provided they live within the 15-mile radius circle; otherwise, interested birders will be assigned to a team. Similar to a census of the human population, there are certain parameters set up to ensure the count is as accurate as possible. People need to pre-register and be assigned a group. To make sure birds are not double-counted or misidentified, only a limited number of new participants are taken each year. It is important to keep each team small and assigned to one specific area. All reporting is done by the coordinator and can only be done one day each year within the permanent circle area. “With that being said, we do have a lot of opportunities for people who live in the circle to participate with feeder surveys, but they still need to contact us to get the necessary forms and information ahead of time,” said Herremans. “The target ‘hot spots’ within our circle include Hart BioPure, Hart Lake, Pentwater Lake, Gales Pond and Lake Michigan. We may also count field birds along the roads as we travel to and from various hot spots, but field birds are harder to identify,” she said. “We count everything we see, then move on; we don’t stay in one place very long.” This year, CBC teams recorded 52 species, which has been the average number of species for the past eight years. Within those 52 species, this year teams spotted 3,740 individual birds, the average number of birds spotted each year for the past eight years has been 3,445 birds. Herremans said they were down four species from last year’s number of 56 species. “It was such a gorgeous day on the 14th. When it isn’t snowing, the birds aren’t as concentrated.” With the past eight CBCs, “the total accumulated number of birds for our circle has reached 83, so it has increased quite a bit since our very first count (in 2016) of 47 birds. Each year, we are able to add a few more,” said Herremans. The count looks at trends and populations and compares data from year to year. Herremans noted the species with the highest count was the Canada Goose, with 1,285 counted, which is consistent with every other year. The next highest number for one species was the American Crow, with 691 counted. A couple of unusual sightings were made this year and can now be added to the county’s official “bird
Hart Middle School Christmas carols at OCMCF Tuesday, Dec. 19, a group of Hart Middle School fifth through eighth grade drama students went to the Oceana County Medical Care Facility and Alzheimer’s Unit in Hart and sang Christmas carols. Organizers said it was an amazing experience for the students, as many had never done this before, and it gave them an opportunity to bring cheer and kindness to those residing there! It was truly a special and memorable experience for everyone, and the school very much appreciated the OCMCF’s willingness to have the students visit. • Contributed Photos