Oklahoma’s Christmas Bird Count

Story by: Guest Contributor

First posted on 01-13-2008

Birders across the Ozarks and in other parts of the nation faced biting winds and cold temperatures in recent efforts to compile information for the Audubon Society’s 108th Christmas Bird Count.

Usually conducted on a day near Christmas, the first census conducted in 1900 began a long tradition of bird watchers as citizen scientists. Though the counts are not considered serious research, they do provide vital information about winter bird populations in the country.

In Oklahoma, Christmas Bird Counts are conducted in specific areas known as “circles” in communities that participate through Audubon Society chapters.

Birders were both hindered and aided to some extent by the sleet and north wind on Dec. 15, as three-dozen or more turned out in Stillwater to participate in the 2007 CBC with the Payne County Audubon Society.

With a forecast for heavy snowfall, organizers had seriously considered calling off the Saturday count but went ahead when birders were enthusiastic in spite of the weather conditions.

Their heartiness and persistence paid off as participants, sheltered in vehicles to endure the severe cold, sighted large numbers of birds that were using the weather event to push further south in their migration efforts.

Tim O’Connell, one of the events organizers, and an assistant professor in the natural resource ecology and management department at Oklahoma State University found the day more rewarding than he had expected.

O’Connell, who studies breeding songbirds and the ecological impact of human influences, spotted a Western Grebe, a waterfowl species generally not seen in this region of the state. O’Connell’s find was made during his count at Lake Carl Blackwell, west of Stillwater. The bird was out of what is considered normal range in Oklahoma for the species.

“These birds shouldn’t be any farther east than, say Cimarron County,” O’Connell said.

OSU NREM faculty member, Dwayne Elmore, also came out for the Stillwater area CBC. Elmore, a wildlife biologist specifically interested in sensitive species and large-scale conservation partnerships, recorded a Le Conte sparrow during his count.

Elmore said that while the Le Conte is not rare, it is not usually recorded during a winter census.

“You absolutely must walk through thick grass and flush them,” Elmore said. Identifying the bird in flight is also usually not done by amateur birders.

“The stormy day caused a lot of movement with birds,” Elmore said. “Birds use north winds to go south, and the strong north wind brought activity.”

Stillwater’s CBC reflected large numbers of migrating birds that included robins, Elmore said, that streamed over in one flock of 1,700 or more birds for 15 minutes. Fairly large numbers of blackbirds, mallards, cowbirds, juncos and geese were also counted.

O’Connell is organizing weekly birding day events in the Stillwater area and can be contacted by e-mail at or at his OSU office by phone at 405-744-7593.

Elmore is planning to teach a Birding 101 class in the spring offered by the Northeast Chapter of the Oklahoma Master Naturalist program, a program operated through the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.

Information about Oklahoma Master Naturalists can be obtained by contacting Marley Beem, OSU assistant Extension aquaculture specialist, at 405-744-3854, or by e-mail at .

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