Thursday, February 17, 2000

Birds will fly up and be counted

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All encouraged to join national effort to help monitor populations

BY MIKE PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        Armed with a pair of binoculars and a comfortable stool, Catherine Fagan expects to “get” dozens of species on her bird hunt in Warren County.

        She'll be waiting and watching and counting as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count 2000, a project of the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Orinthology, Ithaca, N.Y.

OUR COMMON BIRDS

These are the birds you're most likely to see in the count's East Central Region (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio):   American crow   American robin   American tree sparrow   Field sparrow   Song sparrow   White-throated sparrow   House sparrow   Red-winged blackbird   Northern cardinal   Canada goose   Mallard   Red-tailed hawk   Rock dove   Mourning dove   Red-headed woodpecker   Red-bellied woodpecker   Downy woodpecker   Hairy woodpecker   Northern flicker   Pileated woodpecker   Blue jay   Black-capped chickadee   Carolina chickadee   Tufted titmouse   White-breasted nuthatch   Brown creeper   Carolina wren   Northern mockingbird   European starling   Dark-eyed Junco   Common grackle   Brown-headed cowbird   Purple finch   House finch   American goldfinch   If you're looking for a bigger challenge, take a look at the 49-species list of less common birds, sometimes seen in this region. Included there: the great blue heron, wood duck, turkey vulture, wild turkey, sandhill crane, great horned owl, yellow-bellied sapsucker and red-breasted nuthatch.

        The count — to monitor bird populations and migration patterns and the impact the weather has on them — runs Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Everybody is encouraged to participate.

        Brian Keane, president of the 2,300-member Audubon Society of Ohio, the organization's Cincinnati chapter, said the count enlists the help of novice birders because, “there's no practical way to do it using professional bird biologists, or whatever. There just aren't enough of them.”

        But, “if we get enough people to participate — when you have thousands and thousands of people out there counting — it will kind of outweigh the problem of misidentification.”

        Although everybody is encouraged to participate in the count, the registration form does ask about skill levels.

        Sally Conyne, director of citizen science at Bird Source, a collaborative of Cornell and the Audubon Society, said the count is “a divine opportunity for entry-level birders. Observers are asked to report only those birds they can identify, she said, and automatic caps on numbers and species means “they can't make gross distortions in their reports.”

        Ms. Fagan, who helped count birds last year, admits, “I'm kind of a nut about birds.”

        At home in Carlisle, she bakes cookies for them.

        “The recipe calls for chopped nuts, flour, corn meal, eggs and syrup,” she said. “The titmice, chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers love them.

        “You know you're a birder if you're baking cookies for birds before you feed your family.”

        Mr. Keane and his wife, Katherine, who live in Clifton, watch birds in nearby Burnet Woods and in their back yard, where they use a suet treat with corn meal and peanut butter to attract woodpeckers and nuthatches, two of their favorite birds.

        Another of their favorites is the screech owl, which is difficult to see because it is nocturnal.

        Ms. Fagan, who will tally bird species with her husband, Jerry, said, “I always wanted a sort of bird sanctuary.”

        Their home, along the Great Miami River and near three spring-fed lakes, apparently is an attractive spot for her feathered friends.

        “As long as they have food and water, they will stay,” she said. “We have lots of honeysuckle berries and hackberries.

        “I've had a nice little flock of 20 or 30 robins all winter,” she said.

        “When you walk outside, it feels like spring.”

Here's how to join the bird count
       

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