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Knockknees
Dec 21, 2004

sprung out fully formed
90% certain I saw a Peregrine Falcon eating a pigeon during my bus commute in Chicago this morning. It was in a spot that I had been watching, ever since I saw a very falcon-like silhouette a couple weeks ago. I had a much better view this morning. I might need to start bringing my binoculars on the bus.

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Aquila
Jan 24, 2003

[quote="BetterLekNextTime" post=""419782407"]
I went out yesterday to try for one of the blue-footed boobies that have been seen up and down the California coast, but struck out. Lots of birders out there. Funniest thing was a couple of non-birder women were there who were talking to a fairly shy college-aged male birder. One of the women was pretty well endowed and spilling out of her shirt, and the guy was too embarrassed to say what bird everyone was looking for.
[/quote]

Booby!



This was at Marina Del Rey breakwater Wednesday morning. I saw four, very easy to distinguish from the various gulls, cormorants, and pelicans also out there. I haven't been this excited about seeing a bird in a very long time.

I also just got this binocular harness and am really happy with it. For some reason I thought a decent harness would be unreasonably expensive, but this was like $25 on amazon and seems quite nice.

The Dregs
Dec 29, 2005

MY TREEEEEEEE!
My kids are fans of Jack Black (his more kid friendly stuff, anyway), and they absolutely love The Big Year. I'm actually kind of disappointed that you guys don't look too favorably on it. They've been asking and asking to try birding, so we're going in the morning. I bought the Audubon Society Field Guide last night to take along with us. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford binoculars. maybe if it goes well we can invest in a decent pair. The local state park (Kennesaw Mountain in GA) is supposed to be a great spot, so that's where we're headed.

Great thread!

El Perkele
Nov 7, 2002

I HAVE SHIT OPINIONS ON STAR WARS MOVIES!!!

I can't even call the right one bad.

The Dregs posted:

My kids are fans of Jack Black (his more kid friendly stuff, anyway), and they absolutely love The Big Year. I'm actually kind of disappointed that you guys don't look too favorably on it. They've been asking and asking to try birding, so we're going in the morning. I bought the Audubon Society Field Guide last night to take along with us. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford binoculars. maybe if it goes well we can invest in a decent pair. The local state park (Kennesaw Mountain in GA) is supposed to be a great spot, so that's where we're headed.

Great thread!

I like The Big Year. It's stupid, way too traditional and not very realistic, but it handles its prime subject, the social aspect of birding, really well.

The Dregs
Dec 29, 2005

MY TREEEEEEEE!
Back from our first birding trip. It didn't start well. The internet guide said to stick to the main road. We saw about 2 birds in half an hour. A robin and a something.

So we hopped of the road and went on the forest trail. Almost immediately the kids started spotting stuff! We saw a pair of cardinals. A pair (I think, one was gray and one was blue) jays, maybe a swift? Some type of sparrow that we aren't good enough to identify. Also we saw a warbler. The general consensus is that it was a cerulean warbler, but it may have been a different kind. Some tufted titmice. I am not sure if I am supposed to capitalize birds or not. Is it jay, or Jay?

Everyone had a great time. I am setting up a bird feeder with black sunflower seeds, and another with mealworms (what we feed our lizard, we have like 2,000 of them) right now. We bought a lovely pair of binoculars for 20 bucks on the way home. Even they are a huge improvement over nothing, though. My son is stalking through the woods with them right now. The Great White Hunter.

The Dregs fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Sep 29, 2013

BetterLekNextTime
Jul 22, 2008

It's all a matter of perspective...
Grimey Drawer
I enjoyed The Big Year movie, but I went in not expecting it to match the book very closely.

Congrats on the birding trip! Feeders will be a great for learning the birds- I'd also recommend wildlife refuges with water features (waterfowl impoundments, coastal estuaries, etc), as some of the ducks, herons, etc stay still pretty well and are large and colorful. They also lend themselves to photography if you have a digital camera.

You might look for family/youth oriented birdwalks from your local bird club or Audubon society as well. Our local one has a monthly "PB&J" birders walk for kids.

Anyway, that's awesome you are doing this!

For capitalization, birds are one of the few critters that gets their english common names capitalized. So a Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) can be capitalized, but a generic jay is not, nor is a blue jay (meaning a jay that's blue) which would also be lower case.

BeastOfExmoor
Aug 19, 2003

I will be gone, but not forever.

The Dregs posted:

My kids are fans of Jack Black (his more kid friendly stuff, anyway), and they absolutely love The Big Year. I'm actually kind of disappointed that you guys don't look too favorably on it. They've been asking and asking to try birding, so we're going in the morning. I bought the Audubon Society Field Guide last night to take along with us. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford binoculars. maybe if it goes well we can invest in a decent pair. The local state park (Kennesaw Mountain in GA) is supposed to be a great spot, so that's where we're headed.

Great thread!

The Dregs posted:

Back from our first birding trip. It didn't start well. The internet guide said to stick to the main road. We saw about 2 birds in half an hour. A robin and a something.

So we hopped of the road and went on the forest trail. Almost immediately the kids started spotting stuff! We saw a pair of cardinals. A pair (I think, one was gray and one was blue) jays, maybe a swift? Some type of sparrow that we aren't good enough to identify. Also we saw a warbler. The general consensus is that it was a cerulean warbler, but it may have been a different kind. Some tufted titmice. I am not sure if I am supposed to capitalize birds or not. Is it jay, or Jay?

Everyone had a great time. I am setting up a bird feeder with black sunflower seeds, and another with mealworms (what we feed our lizard, we have like 2,000 of them) right now. We bought a lovely pair of binoculars for 20 bucks on the way home. Even they are a huge improvement over nothing, though. My son is stalking through the woods with them right now. The Great White Hunter.

That's awesome. Despite the flaws of The Big Year (the most notable of which being that it had three incredible comedic actors and yet wasn't that funny) I still enjoyed it and have actually rewatched it once or twice. As others have said, it does a pretty decent job of showing birding culture. I've talked to several people in the field that have asked me about it in a positive way, so I think it had a positive effect overall.

Glad you had a good time with the kids and that they enjoyed the experience. Some ID's are probably tough to make right now (Fall warblers are notoriously tough), but it should get easier. I've had limited experience, but Red-Headed Woodpeckers, Eastern Bluebirds, Eastern Phoebes, and Myrtle's Yellow-Rumped Warblers are pretty common in the south east during the winter, not to mention the various waterfowl, egrets and herons.

Kawalimus
Jan 17, 2008

Better Living Through Birding And Pessimism
Got to see a Nelson's Sparrow in Baltimore County MD this morning. Wow! Was a life bird for me too. At the same park on the same day a Nelson's, Le Conte's, and Clay-colored Sparrow showed up. I only got the chance to see the Nelson's but that's the toughest one to get around here. The other ones show up from time to time. There was another lady there who had over 300 birds life in this county who had never seen one of those here. What a pretty bird. Hope the other two hang around a little while longer so I can get another shot.

El Perkele
Nov 7, 2002

I HAVE SHIT OPINIONS ON STAR WARS MOVIES!!!

I can't even call the right one bad.
Great birding experiences all around:

Saturday: Spent about 4 hours watching arctic goose migration. Cold, strong northern wind. About 7000 geese, mostly Barnacles, flocks often disappeared into clouds. Horrible light. Also 44 Eurasian Jays. No Saimaa Ringed Seal despite relatively good place. Got bored after 4 hours, drove a bit to see if the 10 000 Barnacles were still present in the nearby field. Turns out they were, but before we got a chance to start sweeping through the flock, a young White-Tailed Eagle shows up and chases all the geese away. Hooray!

Yesterday: Spent 1 hour watching waterfowl migration. About 7 Black-Throated Loons, some Oldsquaw and couple of Common Scoters. Strong wind, light rain.

Today: Spent 30mins in one place watching arctic waterfowls again. 2 Loons, 15 Wigeons (about 4km away). Drive to another location - 1 Chiffchaff. Nothing else. Third location: One flock of Long-Tailed Tits. Cold, strong wind.

:suicide: I really hope the wind turns soon, this is hopeless.

El Perkele
Nov 7, 2002

I HAVE SHIT OPINIONS ON STAR WARS MOVIES!!!

I can't even call the right one bad.
On a more serious note, anyone have first-hand experience with following tripods: Gitzo GT3541L, Velbon N650D, with Manfrotto 701HDV? Updating from 028B+501, Gitzo is nice but soooo expensive.

Kawalimus
Jan 17, 2008

Better Living Through Birding And Pessimism
Wind is the biggest pain in the rear end when birding. It's one of the only things that will get me to cancel a birding outing.

El Perkele
Nov 7, 2002

I HAVE SHIT OPINIONS ON STAR WARS MOVIES!!!

I can't even call the right one bad.

Kawalimus posted:

Wind is the biggest pain in the rear end when birding. It's one of the only things that will get me to cancel a birding outing.

I don't have problem with wind per se, I have problems with 6m/s northern winds that have continued for one and half weeks. Luckily wind direction will change soon, that ought to do something.

Some of the best sea migrations I have seen were in near-storm westerlies.

BeastOfExmoor
Aug 19, 2003

I will be gone, but not forever.
Wind can be a blessing or a curse, really. A breezy day last week brought in handful of Common Tern's to my local seawatch location in Puget Sound. They're pretty hard to find on this side of the water so I think the wind really did help. I went out on Sunday afternoon in a pretty good windstorm. While I was sorting through abnormally large flocks of shorebirds a pair of Peregrine Falcons seemed to relish the wind and chased Dowitchers all around me for five minutes. In the midst of this they kicked up a group of American Pipits into the air which included a calling Lapland Longspur (locally rare).

The downside is that it's cold, noisy, and usually keeps the small birds hidden deep in bushes. It also shakes tripods like crazy which can make spotting scope use nearly impossible.

Kawalimus
Jan 17, 2008

Better Living Through Birding And Pessimism
Oh yeah I can see it being like that if you're doing water birds. But I mostly do stuff that hides in the meadows and woods. So wind makes it hell, pure hell. It's tough to see movement up in those trees when the wind is blowing everything and like has been said it also keeps birds down. I only get to do water birds from time to time when I am in those areas.

razz
Dec 26, 2005

Queen of Maceration
Well I am back and got to see lots of new birds out West that I had never seen before. I took a million pictures that will take me FOREVER to get through but eventually I'll post some. I'm glad to see this thread is still going strong!

New birds for my list, none that are really rarities but definitely things we don't have in eastern KS:

Sage Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Phainopepla
Pygmy Nuthatch
Pinyon Jay
Western Bluebird
American Dipper
Pyrrhuloxia (not 100% on this one)
Rufous Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird
White-winged Dove
Many species of gulls and terns that I'll post photos of for ID help
Quite a few others that I can't think of right now

For a trip that totally wasn't focused on birding at all, I think I did pretty well! My husband and I both remarked this morning that it was nice to actually be able to recognize the bird calls around here (since we heard so much odd stuff in CA/AZ/NM that we were completely clueless about!)

BetterLekNextTime
Jul 22, 2008

It's all a matter of perspective...
Grimey Drawer

razz posted:

Well I am back and got to see lots of new birds out West that I had never seen before. I took a million pictures that will take me FOREVER to get through but eventually I'll post some. I'm glad to see this thread is still going strong!

New birds for my list, none that are really rarities but definitely things we don't have in eastern KS:

Sage Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Phainopepla
Pygmy Nuthatch
Pinyon Jay
Western Bluebird
American Dipper
Pyrrhuloxia (not 100% on this one)
Rufous Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird
White-winged Dove
Many species of gulls and terns that I'll post photos of for ID help
Quite a few others that I can't think of right now

For a trip that totally wasn't focused on birding at all, I think I did pretty well! My husband and I both remarked this morning that it was nice to actually be able to recognize the bird calls around here (since we heard so much odd stuff in CA/AZ/NM that we were completely clueless about!)

Welcome back! Sounds like an awesome trip. By the way, Sage Sparrow just got split so make sure you pay attention to where you saw it.

LikeABell
Apr 29, 2005

more like taiwan

lord funk posted:

So we have a passageway between two buildings where birds have a hard time. Either they hit the windows and die, or they get stuck / lost in there until they exhaust themselves. They have a really hard time finding their way out because of all the windows.

For the second time, I saw a Brown Creeper lying on the ground. You know it's bad to see that, because they're a creeping bird that doesn't perch or lay on the ground. I figured it was dead, but my heart sank when I got close to it and saw its little head move. I was terrified that it had broken its wings by flying into the building. I had to know for sure, so I went to pick it up... and it flew a little bit and grabbed onto my left leg! It was okay! Totally exhausted, but okay.

So I had to get it out of there. I scooped it up, it tried to fly a bit and immediately landed on my shirt (believe it or not, this is the second Brown Creeper that has used me as a nice tree trunk to rest on). I quickly covered it so it wouldn't fly away, and I walked it to the nearby bike path. I opened my hands, petted its little head, waited a moment, and it flew straight to the biggest tree trunk it saw. So happy.




This is from a bit back, but I work with injured wildlife at my job and this is a pretty classic injury for birds. Obviously you know windows are a huge problem for birds. Many times if they hit the windows and they DON'T die, they get coracoid fractures (a paired bone part of the shoulder). The injury is interesting because they can fly a bit, but they can't get any lift because of the injury to the shoulder. It usually heals pretty quickly. Other times, they get immediately stunned by the window strikes and need a little time clinging to a nice person before they fly off :). Cool bird though, I was in the only group that saw a Brown Creeper in my first Christmas Bird Count three years ago and so they hold a special place in my heart!

axolotl farmer
May 17, 2007

Now I'm going to sing the Perry Mason theme

BetterLekNextTime posted:

For capitalization, birds are one of the few critters that gets their english common names capitalized. So a Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) can be capitalized, but a generic jay is not, nor is a blue jay (meaning a jay that's blue) which would also be lower case.

I can add to this how to write scientific names properly, it's not too complicated.

A species name has three parts: Genus, specific name and author. The scientific name of the Bald Eagle is Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766). Haliaeetus is a genus of eagles, leucocephalus indicates which species in the genus it is, and (Linnaeus, 1766) is a literary reference to who and when the species was described scientifically.

In non-scientific text, the author is generally omitted. Only tricky part is that the parenthesis means that the species was originally described as belonging to another genus, in this case the genus Falco.

In a scientific name like Haliaeetus leucocephalus, the genus should always be capitalized, and the specific name is always written in lower case. Usually, scientific names are italicized in printed text. If a name is used repeatedly in a text, it is written out completely the first time it appears and is subsequently shortened like this: H. leucocephalus.

lord funk
Feb 16, 2004

LikeABell posted:

This is from a bit back, but I work with injured wildlife at my job and this is a pretty classic injury for birds. Obviously you know windows are a huge problem for birds. Many times if they hit the windows and they DON'T die, they get coracoid fractures (a paired bone part of the shoulder). The injury is interesting because they can fly a bit, but they can't get any lift because of the injury to the shoulder. It usually heals pretty quickly. Other times, they get immediately stunned by the window strikes and need a little time clinging to a nice person before they fly off :). Cool bird though, I was in the only group that saw a Brown Creeper in my first Christmas Bird Count three years ago and so they hold a special place in my heart!

You have to love Brown Creepers. They're soooo adorable, and they absolutely live up to the 'creeper' name the way they hop up and down tree trunks. Plus they have that tinge of OCD about methodically combing a nice row of trees for tasty nibbles.

The first time one landed on me, I saw him trying to perch on the smooth marble walls of that passageway. He just couldn't get any traction to land. When I got closer, I froze, and he came and landed on my jeans. We just stood there for about five minutes as he caught his breath. Eventually he took off, and I watched as he finally found his way out.

Lawson
Apr 21, 2006

You're right, I agree.
Total Clam


Does that look like a yellow-rumped warbler?

BetterLekNextTime
Jul 22, 2008

It's all a matter of perspective...
Grimey Drawer

hey santa baby posted:



Does that look like a yellow-rumped warbler?

Yes- probably the eastern form (Myrtle warbler), with the bolder mask and white throat.

BeastOfExmoor
Aug 19, 2003

I will be gone, but not forever.
Yes, Myrtle's subspecies.

E: f, b.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Oct 14, 2013

Lawson
Apr 21, 2006

You're right, I agree.
Total Clam
Thanks! And this is in Jersey so the eastern form makes sense.

BetterLekNextTime
Jul 22, 2008

It's all a matter of perspective...
Grimey Drawer
I probably shouldn't say "eastern" since the breeding range of Myrtle extends farther west through the boreal forest into Alaska. If anyone's interested there's been some recent work on the species complex- I guess it's important enough that some science journalists have written about it (and of course gotten it wrong). Fairly in-depth blog post about the controversy here.

InternetJunky
May 25, 2002

Is there any chance my wife and I saw a yellow-billed magpie in Edmonton, Alberta?

We were driving yesterday and at a stop light we were both watching a magpie picking through the leaves. Initially we both thought he had a french fry or something in his mouth, but as we got closer and passed him in the car it became clear it was his beak colour and not a fry. We both blurted out "yellow-billed magpie!" at the same time. We rushed home to grab the camera but couldn't find him again. :(

I checked eBird and they seem pretty constrained to California.

BetterLekNextTime
Jul 22, 2008

It's all a matter of perspective...
Grimey Drawer

InternetJunky posted:

Is there any chance my wife and I saw a yellow-billed magpie in Edmonton, Alberta?

We were driving yesterday and at a stop light we were both watching a magpie picking through the leaves. Initially we both thought he had a french fry or something in his mouth, but as we got closer and passed him in the car it became clear it was his beak colour and not a fry. We both blurted out "yellow-billed magpie!" at the same time. We rushed home to grab the camera but couldn't find him again. :(

I checked eBird and they seem pretty constrained to California.

That would be very unusual I think. Hopefully you can get pics! To be honest I've never thought about other field marks to separate yb magpie from a bb magpie that just ate a mustard packet.

Kawalimus
Jan 17, 2008

Better Living Through Birding And Pessimism
If you're sure it was, report a possible Yellow-billed Magpie on a local list-serv or what have you and I am sure plenty of people will be on the case and try to find it.

BeastOfExmoor
Aug 19, 2003

I will be gone, but not forever.
I would think that some sort of mutated Black-Billed Magpie or some sort of weirdly marked bill would be way more likely than a vagrant. I just checked and Oregon doesn't even have Yellow-Billed Magpie on their checklist so they don't roam very far.

Yellow-Billed Magpie is my nemesis bird.

Managed to find two rarities today for my county big year. Western Scrub Jay and a pair of Marbled Godwits. 222 species, which is crazy considering I started out hoping to break 200.

Aquila
Jan 24, 2003

BeastOfExmoor posted:

Yellow-Billed Magpie is my nemesis bird.

Heh, I considered them common where I went to school (SLO). Creepers otoh just know to avoid me.

BetterLekNextTime
Jul 22, 2008

It's all a matter of perspective...
Grimey Drawer
Yellow-billed Magpie is pretty common around Davis as well.

Congrats on the county list. I saw a note from one of the local Audubon societies that someone just got their 200th species for each county in California (and were the 5th person to do this). That's probably equal parts travel, birding skill, and anal retentiveness.

BeastOfExmoor
Aug 19, 2003

I will be gone, but not forever.

BetterLekNextTime posted:

Yellow-billed Magpie is pretty common around Davis as well.

Congrats on the county list. I saw a note from one of the local Audubon societies that someone just got their 200th species for each county in California (and were the 5th person to do this). That's probably equal parts travel, birding skill, and anal retentiveness.

I actually may have seen YB Magpies twice, but both times they were seen for a fraction of a second in flight as a silhouette while I was driving and I didn't see them well enough to ensure they weren't just Scrub Jays. It's mostly funny to me that in the couple weeks I spent working in central California last year I saw Nelson's Sparrows, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, and a Baltimore Oriole (all very rare on the west coast) and yet couldn't manage to find a locally common bird. I had to really work to find a Nutall's Woodpecker as well, so maybe I'm cursed on California endemics.

200 birds in every county in California is an incredible achievement. Washington's highest total is a guy who has 175 in each county and we have 19 fewer counties to do it in. Not to mention California has some ridiculous counties. San Francisco county is only 47 square miles. Alpine county is in the middle of the mountains and isn't particularly big either.

ExecuDork
Feb 25, 2007

We might be fucked, sir.
Fallen Rib
Last week I had a chance to tag along with some owl banding, which was way less work and way more sitting in a farmer's kitchen listening to stories than I expected.

Owl Banding and Record-Keeping by Execudork, on Flickr

One thing of note, when we (my GF and I) talked about finding a dead (probably) owl beside a highway a few weeks ago, Martin (guy in the picture) told us we were fired when we admitted it didn't occur to us to check for a band. Normally it's on the left leg, but sometimes a band is on the right leg for whatever reason.

Protip: don't get fired, check both legs for bands if you find a dead bird!

El Perkele
Nov 7, 2002

I HAVE SHIT OPINIONS ON STAR WARS MOVIES!!!

I can't even call the right one bad.

ExecuDork posted:

Last week I had a chance to tag along with some owl banding, which was way less work and way more sitting in a farmer's kitchen listening to stories than I expected.

Owl Banding and Record-Keeping by Execudork, on Flickr

One thing of note, when we (my GF and I) talked about finding a dead (probably) owl beside a highway a few weeks ago, Martin (guy in the picture) told us we were fired when we admitted it didn't occur to us to check for a band. Normally it's on the left leg, but sometimes a band is on the right leg for whatever reason.

Protip: don't get fired, check both legs for bands if you find a dead bird!

Especially on owls and raptors this is very, very common guidance. I usually check every dead bird I find for rings; it's unlikely to find them on common species, but raptors and owls are surprisingly often ringed.

BTW, Martin who?

BeastOfExmoor
Aug 19, 2003

I will be gone, but not forever.
Went owling this morning up in the foothills of the Cascades hoping to find a Saw-Whet. It was a bonanaza. Of the five stops, 4 had birds respond. The last stop I had two Saw-Whet's and a Northern Pygmy Owl respond. Sadly none of them perched in view of a flashlight, but the full moon gave me pretty good looks at them flying. I had a couple pass within a foot of my head and one actually made me duck. Owling is loving awesome.

BetterLekNextTime
Jul 22, 2008

It's all a matter of perspective...
Grimey Drawer
Sounds awesome. I've just got Barn Owls in my neighborhood that sound like one of the ringwraiths is about to beat down my door at 2 in the morning, but I haven't gone out for little owls in a long time.


I wanted to mention that I'm starting to see sign-ups for Christmas Bird Count circles. Check with your local Audubon Society chapter to find out when the local counts are and how to get involved. This is a great way to meet other local birders and learn the good spots for winter birding in your area.

InternetJunky
May 25, 2002

Speaking of Christmas birds, is this a snow bunting? (2 hours north of Edmonton, Alberta)

Kawalimus
Jan 17, 2008

Better Living Through Birding And Pessimism
It is!!

I hope to catch one of these in MD sometime this year if they're here again.

Knockknees
Dec 21, 2004

sprung out fully formed
Is a Christmas Bird Count something a beginner can be involved in, or would someone who didn't know what they were looking at just get in the way. I'm not totally clear on how CBCs actually even work.

InternetJunky
May 25, 2002

Knockknees posted:

Is a Christmas Bird Count something a beginner can be involved in, or would someone who didn't know what they were looking at just get in the way. I'm not totally clear on how CBCs actually even work.
The way it was organized here was that you could choose to go out in your own group, or join a group that was specifically aimed at newbies and you'd all go out to a park together. I assume it's similar elsewhere. My wife and I were complete novices and chose the latter option and had a lot of fun. If you're a newbie birder I think the CBC is THE event you want to involve yourself in.

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razz
Dec 26, 2005

Queen of Maceration

Knockknees posted:

Is a Christmas Bird Count something a beginner can be involved in, or would someone who didn't know what they were looking at just get in the way. I'm not totally clear on how CBCs actually even work.

Anyone can get in on it. Basically what you need to do is find out the person who is in charge of the CBC for your area. Just Google "My Town Christmas Bird Count" and you should be able to figure out who to contact. If you live in a populated area there could be multiple people.

Contact that person and tell them you are interested in doing the Christmas Bird Count. The actual places where you bird are set up in "count circles", which are designated areas where people are assigned to go birding. For instance I have always done the Konza Prairie count circle when I do the CBC, so myself and my group just birded anywhere within that "circle". It's pretty vaguely defined, so my instructions were something like "Bird along McDowell Creek Road until you get to Konza, walk around the bison loop or anywhere you think is good on Konza, bird around Ashland Bottoms in the afternoon". You can bird anywhere within that area and be certain that there aren't any other CBC counters birding there.

You can pick which count circle you want to bird at. I don't think there's any sort of min/max number of people for each circle, the main point is just making sure that everyone knows where to bird so the counts don't overlap. Last year I birded with a small group of 3 people - I was the record keeper and the other two spotted birds and told me what to write down. I actually had a "Christmas Bird Count Checklist for Kansas" which was SUPER useful because it's just a list of everything that has been seen on CBCs in the years past so you kind of know what species to expect. Then you just tally up what you see! Every bird you see gets counted, so if you see 58 individual American Robins, you're going to have 58 tally marks next to American Robin on your sheet. Or 16,000 snow geese. Or 4,500 Red-winged Blackbirds. The point is, count them all! As best you can, anyway.

It's an all-day thing but you don't have to do it all day. You can just go morning, or afternoon, or both. As long as you record where you birded, how long and what time, and the distance that you walked they can use that data. Then in the evening they usually have some sort of compilation meeting (ours always serves chili or something) where they tally up birds, talk about rarities, unusual sightings, etc. You don't have to go to this, it's optional.

If it's your first time and/or you aren't super-confident with your bird ID, or you just want to tag along to see how it works, just let someone know and you can go with another group. It's a good way to learn the winter resident birds in your area. And you'll never be in the way, you can always ask to be the data recorder, which personally I think is fun and you still get to bird while you do it. It's a good way to learn birds too, because you'll have people next to you identifying birds while you look for them as well and record what everyone sees.

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