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Weather makes difference in annual Greene bird count

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When it comes to counting birds, a lot depends on the weather.

The 115th annual National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count took place in Greene County Dec. 20 in a 15-mile radius around Ryerson Station State Park and on Dec. 27 in a similar circle around Clarksville.

Bird watchers, including Marge Howard of Waynesburg, counted birds at their feeders, then grabbed their binoculars and note pads and drove the roads looking and listening for birds that winter in the woodlands and waterways around the county. The weather was mild and snowless and that, it turns out, made a difference.

“While weather conditions were good for us humans the birds did not agree. They didn’t seem to be found on the road or at bird feeders. When the temperatures are warmer and there’s no snow the birds are able to find food and don’t need us humans,” Howard said.

Although the count numbers are down, making it hard to decide if there really are more or less of any given species to be found, Howard was able to pinpoint some differences that stood out to her.

“Mallard numbers were 123 this year and in 2013 we had 24. There was

open water both years so I’m not sure why. Wild turkey numbers were much lower – 29 this year and 138 last year. Carolina wren numbers have gone down in the last two years – 23 in 2012, 15 in 2013 and only seven this year.”

Northern cardinals and blue jays are also less numerous, Howard noted.

“What I noticed is that on the Clarksville count, we only had five song sparrows. In 2005 when I started counting regularly, there were 63 on that day. It seems to be a gradual decline and I don’t know what to attribute it to,” Terry Dayton of Waynesburg said.

The number of birds counted across the Northern Hemisphere in 24-hour periods from mid-December to early January is the data that Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society adds to its records, ongoing since 1900. Trends in populations are noted and environmental and weather conditions are studied for possible causes.

Greene County became part of the count in 1953 when the late Ralph Bell of Clarksville measured out the first 15-mile circle and his bird watching friends joined him for 24 hours of counting, from the owls of night to the many birds that feed and fly from dawn until dusk.

A Penn State University educated poultry farmer with a love of birds and science, Bell founded the Allegheny Front Migration Observatory in Dolly Sods, W.Va., in 1958 and banded more than 142,000 birds in his lifetime. His own meticulous recordkeeping, starting in 1927, was done by hand in big ledger books and traces both the daily weather at his farm and the numbers and species of birds he identified, banded and released that were sometimes found again, identified by the numbers on their bands.

It was at one of his public lectures that Howard became interested in bird watching and with Bell’s mentoring that she developed a trained ear for song and an eye for the tiny details that differentiate a tree sparrow from a song sparrow, a rock pigeon from a mourning dove.

In 2006, Howard helped organize the Ralph K. Bell Bird Club in his honor. The club meets monthly to share scientific information, coordinate bird watching events and educate a new generation of bird watchers, including children.

“My mother was good friends with Mr. and Mrs. Bell and I remember going out on counts with them when I was a child of six,” Dayton said. “There’s so much to learn it helps to start early and go out with people who know their birds. It was always great talking to Ralph; he was so humble and willing to share and teach. He was colorblind so he identified mainly through song, and his audio skills were phenomenal. When Audubon went electronic, he asked me to take over the compiling and filing because he never liked those newfangled things called computers.”

Bell was 99 years old when he died at home on May 20, 2014, three days after visiting with 70 of his bird-watching friends who came for a spring migration count at his farm.

“This is our first count without Ralph and we miss him,” Dayton said.

From Feb. 13-16, there will be another chance to count birds for science and see what difference the weather might make. The Great Backyard Bird Count asks participants to spend at least 15 minutes a day counting the birds to be found at feeders and around their neighborhood.

Last year, 144,000 checklists were filed online, making it the largest instantaneous snapshot in the world of where the birds are. It captured the irruption of snowy owls across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes areas and showed the effects of the polar vortex on bird movements nationwide.

If you are new to bird watching or would like to learn more, the Ralph K Bell Bird Club meets at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Greene County Historical Society library and the public is welcome. The speaker will be Dr. Carol I. Bocetti, department of biological and environmental sciences at California University of Pennsylvania. For more information about the club call Howard 724-852-3155.

For more information about the Great Backyard Bird Count go online at birdcount.org. Educational materials and resources are available.

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