For greater than three many years, Ridgefield resident Susan Setterberg has ignored December’s frigid temperatures, soggy downpours and blustery winds to take part within the depend. She is only one of tens of hundreds of volunteers who end up every year for the Audubon’s annual chicken depend, a 125-year-old effort to gather data on North America’s chicken inhabitants.
“I did my first one in the ’80s, but that was back East. This was my 11th year here,” Setterberg stated. “As soon as I got (to Southwest Washington), I found it and signed up.”
Setterberg now leads the native depend, assigning volunteers to work in groups at varied places throughout the Sauvie circle, a 15-mile-wide circle with its heart level on Sauvie Island in Oregon that encompasses 177 sq. miles of land and water.
“That’s a huge, huge swath of land that we do on the Washington side,” Setterberg stated.
Knowledge collected right here is distributed to the nationwide Audubon Society, which compiles and analyzes outcomes from a whole lot of circles throughout North America. The information is then used to create the “State of the Birds” report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Cornell College.
“They can see the major trends of things going up and down. And all of our work contributes to that,” Setterberg stated.
Groups engaged on the Washington facet are principally from Vancouver Audubon. Most of the groups work within the Ridgefield Nationwide Wildlife Refuge. On the Oregon facet of the circle, volunteers from Oregon Chook Alliance, Oregon Birding Affiliation and different teams make the journey to Sauvie Island.
The circle “stays the same from year to year,” Setterberg stated. “The beauty of it is the consistency.”
Vancouver Audubon’s first Christmas depend was in 1967 and had 10 volunteers. The latest depend had 80 volunteers divided into 26 groups, spending an estimated 385 hours waiting for birds.
“It can be anyone. It doesn’t have to be a Vancouver Audubon person. Once in a while, somebody will read about it or hear about it, and they want to do a bird count with their kids, which I love,” Setterberg stated. “So I always save a nice little park area for them, like Abrams Park in Ridgefield, which is great for a family to do.”
Since that first depend, 213 species have been recognized within the Sauvie circle. Among the many birds noticed this 12 months had been extra generally identified species like robins, blackbirds, crows, sparrows and Canada geese, and fewer well-known birds just like the dark-eyed junco, long-billed dowitcher, larger and lesser yellowlegs, and black-crowned heron.
Six groups went out within the subject within the early hours to hear for short-eared and barn owls, and different varied nocturnal birds.
Counts for every species diversified broadly. Robins had been under the typical of 418, with 381 noticed. Darkish-eyed juncos common 725 per depend, however solely 524 had been noticed this 12 months. Nonetheless, downy woodpeckers set a brand new excessive of 78, and pileated woodpeckers tied the 2018 excessive of 18. Purple-breasted sapsuckers had been additionally under common, however furry woodpeckers had been about common.
Setterberg stated taking a look at counts for any single 12 months can not provide you with a transparent image of what’s occurring to chicken populations. Inhabitants modifications need to be tracked over a number of years, which is why taking part within the nationwide occasion is so essential, she stated.
“We also report the time we are watching and the distance we covered. They take the data and analyze it, including time and distance, and that’s where you see the bigger trends,” she stated.
There are modifications occurring domestically. For instance, Setterberg stated the variety of snow geese coming to the refuge has been on the rise. However the variety of pelicans, which was widespread, has dropped significantly.
She stated the Christmas depend is all the time filled with surprises.
“You never know what you’re going to find this year. I think that the excitement of ‘What’s going to be out there?’ really kind of drives you to do Christmas group counts,” she stated.
December’s Christmas depend was Setterberg’s final time organizing the occasion, though not going her final to hitch in. She stated being part of citizen science, serving to to gather information that can be utilized for policymaking, nonetheless holds enchantment.
“You’re participating and saying, ‘This is important to me. This is where we have to pay attention. This is why we need refuges and protected land.’ That’s a big part of why I do it,” she stated.