The annual Christmas Bird Count is a holiday tradition for many. Geoff LeBaron, of the National Audubon Society, discusses its enduring appeal as well as how people can get involved in their communities.

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TRANSCRIPT:

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MPS Episode 10: Geoff LeBaron

[intro music] Dave: Welcome to My Park Story, presented by the National Park Service. People form connections with their favorite national parks and programs, and this park-cast is a place to come together and share those stories. I’m your host, Dave Barak. Today's guest is Geoff LeBaron, the National Audubon Society's director of the Christmas Bird Count..

[intro music fades out]  Dave: With me today is Geoff LeBaron. He is the National Audubon Society's director of the Christmas Bird Count. Hi, Geoff, how are you?

Geoff: Great. Dave, thanks very much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Dave: We are glad that you are and we're really excited to talk about a program that you oversee, every year at the end of the year. Tell us more about that.

Geoff: Well, the the Christmas Bird Count is an early winter bird census that happens during the holiday period, where what people are doing, he reason it's a census is because we're actually counting every bird- not just the species list- but the number of birds that we're seeing as well. And it's a great way of getting involved with conservation issues, but it's also just a wonderful day of birding that you can do practically anywhere.

Dave: That is very cool. I know it's a very popular, I know it's a very popular program, it's a very popular tradition for some people to take part in. If people don't know what the Christmas Bird Count is, how would they get involved?

Geoff: Actually the best way to get involved, if you if you have a computer, is to go to christmasbirdcount (all one, all together) christmasbirdcount.org and that is the CBC website. And in there there's a link that says ‘join the CBC’ and in ‘join the CBC’ there’s a a map of the active circles, and people can click on that map and get their contact information for their local compilers. People should organize or contact the compilers ahead of time because we do try to keep track of of the number of people and the effort that's expended so that it's important to register in advance, basically, for the count.

Dave: I think that's really interesting because when I think of the National Audubon Society, it's a a big national organization, a lot of people have heard a bit heard of it- but this bird count really is localized, isn't it? You have these local compilers that aid the individual census takers to compile all this critical information for you, isn't that right?

Geoff: That's absolutely right, Dave. And it's really interesting because it's a very local activity that people can do, and they become very interested and attached to their local area and the birds in it, and also the people that they're counting with. But because the Christmas Bird Count is literally done across the hemisphere, there are circles set up in the United States, Canada and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. What we're able to do is, each one of those local efforts actually builds a picture of what's happening on a hemispheric basis. So we can sort of see what's going on with the birds in North America and Central America and the Caribbean and South America as well, at the same time of year over time, and it's really exciting.

Dave: So this isn't just a national effort, this is an international effort, isn't it?

Geoff: It is, it really is. There were over 2600 different counts done last year with about almost 80,000 observers involved. So it's a big effort that builds upon everybody's individual efforts, which is why one of the reasons it's so fun

Dave: What are the dates of this year's bird count?

Geoff: Every year the Christmas Bird Count period is run- each count is done on one day- and the counts need to be done between the inclusive dates of December 14th and January 5th each season.

Dave: How long has the Christmas Bird Count been in existence?

Geoff: The Christmas Bird Count was actually started on Christmas Day of 1900, and that's why it's called the Christmas Bird Count is because that's when it was begun as alternative action to what was what was going on at the time, which was over hunting. So Frank Chapman, who was an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History at the time, proposed to do a Christmas Bird Count, or census, rather than a Christmas bird hunt. And some of those areas that were started in 1900 have been covered every year since then. So this will be the 124th year of the Christmas Bird Count.

Dave: And I imagine that the canvassers go and do this every year. This is a tradition for them, I mean for many of the people that participate.

Geoff: It really is. I mean, that's a fun thing just to go out and do and bird, it's a wonderful day of birding in the that season. But more often than not, people who start doing it become really tied and it becomes a real holiday tradition for them. And I, myself, travel every year to the counts that I've sort of started doing back in the 1970s. And it's a great way to see areas that you love and birds that you love and also the people that you get to know and your friends that are birding, that maybe be the only time of year that you see them. So the the traditional tradition aspect and the social aspect is equally important to the the data that we're generating which are very important to our understanding of what's happening to the birds across the hemisphere.

Dave: That feeling, that gathering aspect, that tradition aspect, that's such a important part of the holiday season where you said maybe these are friends of yours who you only see once a year. I think for so many people that the holidays are about coming together, and this time of year just feels like the right time to see all those people you really enjoy and to go out in nature and do something that you all like to do together.

Geoff: It really is. And it's not only going out in nature. You can participate right from your yard and count the birds at your feeders again, as long as you organize, you know, volunteer with the compiler first so that they know not to have somebody else counting your feeders. So it really, I mean it's anywhere from local, to there are people that can travel all over the country sometimes to do it, if they're, you know, visiting somewhere else.

Dave: Where are some of the places you visited to participate in the Christmas Bird Count?

Geoff: The traditional counts that I started doing when I was in graduate school are in Rhode Island. Let's see, I've done counts in Pennsylvania and I've done counts in Maryland. But like I said, they're done in every state, every province and throughout Latin America, the Caribbean. And we also do include counts in the islands in the South Pacific.

Dave: That's incredible. I will volunteer, I will go to the South Pacific for you and I will count birds. That's what I'm gonna to do. New holiday tradition for Dave.

Geoff: [laughs)

Dave: Thinking of all of the locales where these these bird counts take place across the hemisphere, many of them do exist within national parks and that's part of the reason we wanted to talk to you today, is to let people know that there are counts that occur in national parks, and you should check the websites because this is a large part of winter activities at at national parks, specifically those that are, you know, maybe you think of a park like Bryce Canyon as being only, you know, you only want to visit in the summertime where it's nice and warm, but people go there and there's just this incredible count that happens there every year. Several counts, I imagine, happen at Bryce and other national parks.

Geoff: There are counts done within national parks or, I mean, many of the counts, many of the smaller national parks, especially the urban ones, are within urban Christmas Bird Counts, so that a lot of properties in the National Park Service system are included within Christmas Bird Counts. And it really is, it's a wonderful sort of collaboration between the Park Service and and everybody else.

Dave: And I'm so glad you bring that up because the bird counts don't just exist in giant western parks but also in urban parks. Here in Washington, DC we have Rock Creek Park. There are parks in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, San Francisco, you name it, and for people that think, oh, well, I've got to go, I've got to travel, I've got to get out of my city to do this.

Geoff: Birds are everywhere. Any human anywhere on the surface of this planet could go outside on a given day and see a bird. And I mean, they're out in the middle of the ocean, they're all terrestrial habitats and they're incredibly engaging creatures that we just love all so much stuff that they do, and getting involved with the Christmas Count in national parks and you know, it's just it's a wonderful way of engaging with nature and also becoming conservation aware.

Dave: What I think I like about the concept of of a bird count or a bird census is, despite the fact that you are compiling this enormous amount of data, it's at its core sort of an analogue activity. You're not sitting in front of a computer when you're doing it. You are not on your phone when you're doing it. It is this activity where you can, by definition, be outside amongst nature and just exist. And I find that so beautiful in the world we live in, and the the hustle bustle of the holiday season, to just sit out and listen and watch and you don't even, you don't really need too much equipment, even.

Geoff: You you rea