Martin Hutten and David Rak consult with Peter Branson in Chichagof Pass during the Audubon 2015 Christmas Bird Count last Saturday. Three boats were deployed by volunteers during the day-long count, though rough weather hampered attempts to tally birds on the Back Channel side.
Around 20 local bird enthusiasts participated in this year's Audubon Christmas Bird Count, the 75th in Alaska and 116th held nationwide since 1900.
Communities select a day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5 to conduct a count, taking 24 hours to record as many birds as possible within a 15-mile diameter circle. The data collected then can be compared between years and across borders. Christmas counts occur in all 50 states, all Canadian provinces, several Latin American countries and several islands in the Pacific and Caribbean.
"We did a good job covering the area that we were assigned," explained Bonnie Demerjian, one of the Wrangell count's organizers.
By foot, car and small boat, birders spotted 39 different species during their hunt, together counting 3,690 specimens in all. Results from a handful of volunteers keeping count at their household feeders during Saturday's count have yet to be tallied, but overall the count was less diverse than last year's.
"We didn't see as many birds as we would have if the weather had been calmer," explained Demerjian.
Last year 51 different species were identified in and around Wrangell. But the weather during the count on Jan. 3 had been sunnier than the recent one, though high winds then made for still lower totals than in 2013.
Gusts of up to 20 miles per hour during the Dec. 19 count and rough water in the Back Channel through much of the morning and afternoon had an effect on seabird counting. Still, sea- and shorebirds made up the largest numbers of species counted.
Volunteers tallied 822 Barrow's goldeneye, 714 common mergansers and 665 glaucous-winged gulls. Among ducks were 201 mallard, 79 bufflehead and 68 harlequin; there were also two gadwall and an American widgeon spotted. Others included various loons, grebes, heron and scoters.
Among raptors, 42 bald eagle specimens were observed, as well as a red-tail hawk and a northern goshawk.
Of concern to local birders is the number of European starling seen around the island. An invasive species, the United States Department of Agriculture explains these starlings were introduced to the country in 1890 as part of a plan to bring all birds mentioned in Shakespearean sonnets to the New World. Forest Service area wildlife biologist Joe Delabrue explained the still-growing population competes with indigenous bird species for nest holes and resources, adversely affecting those species. Wrangell birders counted 120 starlings this year, and anecdotally observed their number on the island has been growing in recent years.
The count is one of the longest-lived citizen science projects in the world according to Nils Warnock, director of Audubon Alaska. While imperfect, the data collected by the volunteers ultimately helps scientists look for changes in the populations and ranges of bird species.
In last year's Alaska counts, 901 observers found 152 bird species, counting 163,061 individuals in all. Kodiak had the largest diversity of species, with 81 kinds observed. Anchorage was one of only 80 Christmas counts in the hemisphere having more than 100 participants. The 110 Anchorage observers counted 16,009 individual birds, which was also the highest number in the state. Volunteers also found two species that were new to Alaska, a rufous hummingbird in Sitka and a long-eared owl in Juneau.
Demerjian said the next big count will be the Great Backyard Bird Count in early February, another Audubon program. The four-day count has volunteers stick to their own yards for this count, making the process a little less intensive.
"It's nice because it's not so formal as the Christmas bird count," she explained.
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