CHR ISTMAS B IRD COUNT

History

"A bird in the bush is worth two in the hand.” Motto of Bird Lore Magazine (circa 1900).

Never has such a prestigious event had such a jaded history. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count had a down-right questionable beginning. Called the Side Hunt, the famous count was started by the British gentry who would mark off distinct geographic units and proceed to shoot everything in sight, each team gaining points for each animal killed. The rarer the species, the more points the team was awarded. After a 24 hour period, the winner was announced based on his pile of carcasses.

Sometime just before the turn of the century, Frank Chapman, then the editor of Bird Lore Magazine, decided to organize an alternative to the annual 'side hunt.’ The story goes, that Chap- man got the idea while strolling through Central Park in New York. At the time it was very fashionable for New York's upper crust to adorn their heads with some rather exotic collec- tions of fine feathers. Some especially sought after bird species were becom- ing extremely rare.

Chapman then decided to launch an alternative to the side hunt and this would be the first Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The intent was to gather useful data on birds. Frank Chapman is also the father of North American bird field guides, having produced his first guide in 1895, the predecessor to today’s Pederson Field Guides. Today the most popular field guides outsell the Bible every year, a testimony to the popularity and interest in birds today!

In 1900, Canada was only 33 years old when the first Christmas Bird Counts took place. Scotch Lake, N.B. and Toronto were the first two CBCs in Canada. Charlottetown, P.E.l. started in 1902, Okanagan Landing, BC. in 1905, Edmonton in 1906, Ottawa 1907, and by 1925. 11 Canadian counts were estab- lished. Today there are 180 counts aCross Canada and 1,500 counts in the Americas.

The event has burgeoned into one of the most famous natural history events in the world. In Canada, events are organized by local natural history clubs and conservation groups. This year some 40,000 people will ‘Experience the Birds of Christmas.’

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An uncommon bird is the Northern Shrike which is noted on many counts in Canada.

Picture Doug de Herries Smith.

In some places the count is taken so seriously, it has taken on military pro- portions. Successful Edmonton Counter, Dr. lames Butler, recalls one of the greats of Christmas Bird Counts. Allan Cruickshank, now deceased, was the Organizer of the Cocoa, Florida Count for years and, "He was a tyrant, he ran the count like a military opera- tion," recalls Butler. “People would be

In 1986 Yardley lanes, the Edmonton Iournal Cartoonist, created this character in honor of Christmas Bird Counters.

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flown in from California, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina and even Illinois and unfortunately not everyone could participate," remem. bers Butler, himself an ornithologist.

“Cruickshank would turn down 100 counters a year," said Butler, explain- ing that novices would have slowed the unit down. Cruickshank's team would scout the area for weeks in advance of the count and rare species sightings would be challenged by a panel. "I'm glad I never saw anything rare," sighed Butler. He now lives in Edmonton where he is part of the largest Christ- mas Bird Count in the world. In the 1986 count Edmonton sent 511 people into the streets and ravines to turn up almost 50,000 birds.

In terms of numbers of birds, the undisputed Canadian championship count is Vancouver where 140 individ. ual species were recorded in one count! By contrast, counters in the Panama Canal Zone of Central America found 311 species in their 24-km diameter count circle in 1984. In the U.S., Freeport, Texas turned up 222 species, topping the American counts in 1984.