Annual Audubon Society bird count in Valley starts Saturday

A curve-billed thrasher (Courtesy: Anita Westervelt)

It’s time once again for the National Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count, and the Rio Grande Valley as usual has plenty of birds that need counting.

This is the 125th year for the event, which begins with the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge “count circle” on Saturday. The circle encompasses Alamo, Hidalgo, McAllen, Pharr, San Juan and Sharyland. Anyone interested in joining the Santa Ana count team should email nurse_anne@msn.com.

Count dates and contact information for the Valley’s seven other count circles are: Coastal Tip, Dec. 17, naturalist@spibirding.com; Weslaco, Dec. 21, john.yochum@tpwd.texas.gov; Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Dec. 26, txlacbc@flanwr.org; Falcon Dam and State Park, Dec. 29, idratherbebirding@gmail.com; Anzalduas-Bentsen, Jan. 3, roy.rodriguez@tpwd.texas.gov; Brownsville, Jan. 3, karl.berg@utrgv.edu; and Harlingen, Jan. 4, hgtxcbc@gmail.com.

The Coastal Tip circle includes Laguna Vista, Laguna Heights, Port Isabel, South Padre Island, and south to the Rio Grande. The Weslaco circle includes Donna, Mercedes, La Feria, and south to Progreso.

Individuals can participate by counting/identifying birds in their own yards as long as the property falls within one of the designated areas, according to National Audubon Society.

“Contact one of the above teams to find if your yard is within a designated area,” said the organization. “A list of birds and information will be sent upon request. If you have a yard full of birds in a count area, invite a team. They may be able to visit on count day.”

The areas encompassed by each count circle in the Valley — and Alaska and the rest of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America all the way to the southern tip — can be found at gis.audubon.org/christmasbirdcount/.

Karl Berg, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley associate professor, ornithologist and leading parrot researcher, is the official compiler for the Brownsville circle, which includes the UTRGV campus.

“Our campus is very productive,” he said. “We have great observations there.”

The circle also encompasses Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park, Rescaca De La Palma State Park, Sabal Palm Sanctuary, Southmost Preserve and other “nooks and crannies,” he said.

“We have some very proficient birders,” Berg said. “Usually we try and team them up with beginners or ones that can’t necessarily identify all the species they’re going to come in contact with.”

He said Audubon’s annual bird count essentially gave rise to “citizen science,” which is all the rage these days.

“It’s all these platforms where millions of people can contribute data that would be impossible for professionals to go out and do, or be very, very expensive,” Berg said. “One-hundred-and-twenty-five years ago, people weren’t doing citizen science. It’s really been all in the last 30 years or so.”

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Herring gulls amongst the laughing gulls (Courtesy: Anita Westervelt)

A hooded oriole (Courtesy: Anita Westervelt)

A killdeer (Courtesy: Anita Westervelt)

A green heron (Courtesy: Anita Westervelt)

A curve-billed thrasher (Courtesy: Anita Westervelt)

The Brownsville count alone typically attracts about 30 people, he said, noting that it’s open to anyone who’s been turned onto birds one way or another. Mixing experienced birders is “how you get people involved,” Berg said, adding that Winter Texans are an important part of the annual count.

“Actually one of my early experiences with birds was the Christmas Bird Count, in St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, just south of Tallahassee,” he said. “That was probably about 1989.”

Audubon set the county in December to standardize it and “start to piece together migration,” Berg said. In the Northern Hemisphere, at any rate, a lot of birds have already reached their migratory destinations by this time of year. That may mean fewer birds to count in places like Alaska, but a ton in South Texas, he said.

“The Valley is super important at a national level because we’re subtropical but, also, when we have all our birds is around the end of the year,” Berg said. “Everything has migrated here, whereas that would not be the case in Alaska.”

The annual count is essential for scientists to keep track of bird distribution, which is always in flux, he said.

“We keep learning about them and, of course, with habitat destruction and development and climate change, distributions keep changing. So nothing is for sure.”

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