I was fortunate this year to be able to join 19 other volunteers to collect bird species and population data around Sisters, Oregon as part of the 113th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count.  

We arrived in the area the day before the count, and as you can see from the photo above the weather turned threatening in the evening. Jill used her good judgement and opted-out of the count in favor of snuggling-up with a book by the fire. A decision that produced great results for both us - Jill was able to take a break from the hectic pace of the holiday season while I was free to traipse around the frozen country side counting birds and then compare observations with others over a pint of beer at a local watering hole.  Does it get any better than that?  

The 15 mile diameter count circle around the small town of Sisters was combed this year by teams of 2 to 5 people.  Several of the team members started their day shortly after midnight to chase owls!  The official start time for us non-owlng volunteers was 7:15 am.  I was excited to participate so naturally I showed up early - (only) to find seven other volunteers already there standing in sub-freezing temperatures discussing various events of the day while waiting for the restaurant doors to open.  One of early risers was an owler who had already found nine Great Horned Owls before I had even crawled out of bed.  I knew at that moment that I was in over my head - and yet at the same time - I had the wonderful feeling that I was going to learn a ton from a bunch of really terrific people.

Tundra Swan As we pulled into Black Butte Ranch the day before the count we found this Tundra Swan foraging on Phalarope Lake.

After checking the historical data sheets, we knew this was "a good bird". The last time this species was found during the Sisters CBC was 2004.   

Thankfully, the swan did not move overnight which made it easy for the team working this area to locate and confirm our initial identification on the official day of the count!

While the Tundra Swan was, as they say, a "good bird"; five other species were observed for the first time in the 14 year history of the Sisters CBC. They were: Sora, Redhead, Barred Owl, House Wren, and White-throated Sparrow.  Of the (five) first-ever sightings for the Sisters count, I was very happy to be able to capture an image of at least one of them.  The picture of the Barred Owl below was made possible by several serendipitous events such as finding it at the end of the day when most of the rest of us were either moving into or already in town, the thoughtfulness of the team member who called in to invite us to see it, and the owl's selection of a perch that afforded me the opportunity to set up (under very good ambient city-light conditions) to capture the image below.

 The Christmas Bird Count is longest running Citizen Science survey in the world.

God Bless and Merry Christmas to all!