Binoculars at the ready, a small group of birders fanned out through the field, searching for a brown-and-gray bird that was stubbornly refusing to show itself.
We were looking for a clay-colored sparrow, a rare visitor to the East Coast that had been spotted in this field at the Marshlands Conservancy in Rye, N.Y., over the last week. But while a few sweeps of the field turned up a variety of birds ? including seven other species of sparrows ? the clay-colored sparrow remained out of sight.
As participants in the National Audubon Society?s annual Christmas Bird Count, we were eager to add this unusual species (check out the video above, posted at YouTube by a professional photographer), to the local tally. But we couldn?t spend all day looking for it. We had to cover the area thoroughly and keep count of every individual bird we saw. In the Christmas Bird Count, every bird counts, no matter how rare or common.
The annual count was begun in 1900 by the ornithologist Frank Chapman as a conservation-minded alternative to the Side Hunt, a Christmas tradition in which revelers competed to see who could shoot more birds and other animals. Now in its 113th year, the count is described by the Audubon Society as the longest-running citizen science project in the world.
Last year, more than 63,000 volunteers participated across North and South America, with more than 2,000 local counts, each covering a circular territory 15 miles in diameter. The vast trove of data ?helps scientists track continent-wide trends in bird populations; the Audubon Society lists more than 200 published studies that rely on information from the count.
My search for the rare sparrow was a part of the Bronx-Westchester Count, which covers an area centered on New Rochelle, N.Y.. Originating ?in 1924, this local count had a cumulative checklist of 224 species last year. The clay-colored sparrow was not one of them, and ?we were disappointed to think we wouldn?t be able to add it to the total.
But there were plenty of other birds around. We spotted a pileated woodpecker, a striking crow-size bird with a scarlet crest; a northern gannet, a long-winged bird of the open ocean that catches fish with a spectacular dive from the sky; a group of buffleheads, diminutive black-and-white ducks that seemed undaunted by the cold, swimming underwater to look for food and then surfacing a short distance away; a handful of red-breasted nuthatches, a northern bird that forages while clambering head-first down tree trunks and whose call sounds like a toy horn; and even an orange-crowned warbler, a tiny gray-and-yellow species that is also uncommon in the East.
And in the cause of science, we dutifully tallied the totals for dozens or hundreds of chickadees, herring gulls, Canada geese, starlings and other abundant locals.
And that was before lunch. After a break to eat and compare notes, the sparrow search recommenced, without great hope. But then, along a path bordering the field, I suddenly saw a blur of motion near the ground.
Got it! A few cellphone calls later, the other birders converged on the spot, and we all got a good look before the sparrow, which admittedly would not merit a second look from most non-birders, flew off down the field. Then, even with our main target spotted, we kept looking and counting. Every bird counts, after all.
In all, this year?s Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count tallied 126 species, tying the highest total for this count circle. Three species were added for the first time, bringing the historical total ?to 227.
And of course, one of them was the clay-colored sparrow, recorded in two spots ? one in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, and ?my? bird at Marshlands.
Do you have a bird-count tale to share?
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