The Litchfield Hills Audubon Society held their Christmas Bird Count (CBC) this past Sunday, December 15. LHAS has been participating in the CBC since its founding in 1955. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count started back in 1899 as a way of encouraging people to count birds instead of shooting them. The CBC this year begins on December 14th and runs until January 5th. Thousands of volunteer birders contribute to the long-term study of early winter bird populations across North America.
Currently, the Litchfield Hills Audubon Society has 14 teams of birders that head out, some as early as midnight, to count birds in an established 15-mile-diameter circle. LHAS’ Team E, consists of Janet Baker, Scott Mills, Debbie Martin and myself. Debbie and I, brave souls that we are, crazy more like it, ventured out this past Sunday at 2:30a.m. to begin the count searching and listening for owls. The temperature was a very chilly 12 degrees, waning full moon and practically no breeze. Perfect for being out at that hour of the morning, with the light of the moon illuminating the roads and woodlands.
During the first stop in our attempt to hopefully hear a Saw-whet or a Barred Owl, I looked up at the moon and had to do a double take to see what was passing over it. I grabbed my camera with its telephoto lens and took a number of photos to see if I could make out what the object was crossing in front of the moon. Not until I arrived home later in the evening and downloaded the images to my computer that I took during the day was I able to crop the photo of the moon to get a better look at what the object was. Surprisingly, as you can see by the photo, that that strange object ended up being no other than you know who! A great way to start the count!
We moved along to various other locations in the area assigned to Team E and ended up hearing a vary vociferous Saw-whet Owl and seeing a Barred Owl. We were hoping for a Great Horned Owl, but not this year.
Just after dawn, Debbie and I met up with Janet and Scot, to continue the count scouring our area for birds. Debbie and Scot worked exceptionally hard listening and searching for birds. We didn’t see anything unusual during the count. We were a little disappointed that we weren’t able to see some of the more common birds, like turkeys, flickers and vultures. Nevertheless, we ended up with a total of 28 bird species.
Scott Mills and Debbie Martin