Christmas Bird Counts have been conducted for over 100 years, beginning on Christmas day in the year 1900 as an alternative to the Christmas Day "side hunt" where two teams were choosen and competed to see who could shoot the most birds.. Instead of shooting every bird one could find, the first bird watchers were out attempting to see and count every bird they could find. Now, tens of thousands of birders participate in hundreds and hundreds of count circles throughout North America.

A “circle” 15 miles in diameter is drawn on a map. Then, birders divide up and attempt to count every single bird of every single species (seen or heard) within their territory. Some birders go at it alone, others in a team, while others stay inside and look out their window at their feeders. Christmas Counts are conducted between December 14th and January 5th. The National Audubon Society compiles the numbers, publishes a journal with the results, and makes all of the data available online.

While this is far from exact science – biases such as weather, number of participants, abilities of participants vary widely each year – the data, over the long term, becomes very useful, especially for broad-scale trend analysis. With the data now available online, many researchers are able to access the data for scientific publications. But, since absolutely anyone can view and manipulate the data, the website offers a fantastic opportunity for everyone. You can map and graph locations and trends for every species ever tallied by a Christmas Bird Count!

Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data is very useful in finding patterns of irruption events, long-term population changes, species’ range changes, etc. Plus, it’s a heckuva lot of fun! Birding dawn to dusk (often with some owling before or after) with friends, and of course the social event of the compilation afterwards makes for a great way to spend a winter day!

One of the things that I like about CBCs is that every bird counts! We are just as interested as tabulating chickadees and finding rarities (well, maybe almost). But, this is some of the best and most thorough surveys of common species, so in a way, counting common birds is at least – from a data perspective – more important. But, everyone is more than excited to find a “count first” Mega-rarity, of course.

I spent this morning scouting for this Saturday’s Greater Portland Christmas Bird Count. This count covers the area between Falmouth and Scarborough. For this count circle, I cover only the Portland Peninsula (east of I-295) in a half-day of effort (There’s no way I could skip a WHOLE Saturday the week before Christmas!). I begin at East End Beach, bird the Eastern Promenade, then Old Port, then West Commercial Street, and then the West End.

Scouting is an important part of the CBC effort. There’s not enough light to cover every single inch of a territory in a single day, so you need to focus your efforts on where there are the most birds. Since I only have a half-day, and I do a lot of walking, I have to pick and choose where I will go on count day. Therefore, I wandered around various parts of the peninsula today, refining my route for Saturday’s count. While the only bird of interest that I had this morning was a single Common Redpoll at a West End feeder, I was able to plan my route. Got to add that lot in the East End that had some White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos today, but nothing was lingering in the garden of the First Parish Church for example, so I won’t stop there on Saturday.

While my walkathon through the Portland Peninsula will not tally the diversity of species that will be found by other teams, I get to bird some of my favorite areas – like the Eastern Promenade, and check some really good places to find some really good birds in! But I do spend quite a bit of time counting House Sparrows, European Starlings, Rock Pigeons, and Herring Gulls! But, on a CBC, they count as well!