Hunger Mountain Christmas Bird Count happens Dec. 20
December 11, 2020 | By Waterbury Roundabout 
Common Redpolls. Courtesy photo.
Evening Grosbeak. Courtesy photo.
Pine Grosbeak Pair. Courtesy photo.
Each winter, birdwatchers across the Americas don their snow boots and grab binoculars to scour their hometowns, documenting and enjoying resident winter birds.
This annual tradition called the Christmas Bird Count is over a century old and it has become a powerful tool for understanding the rise and fall of bird populations over time.
The count was created as a peaceful alternative to a traditional yuletide hunt wherein teams competed to kill the most animals in an afternoon. In Enosburg Falls, the participants of this “side hunt” collected a bevy of over 550 birds and mammals in 1896. In response to this tradition, founder Frank Chapman announced “a new kind of Christmas side hunt in the form of a Christmas bird-census.”
Today, more than 60,000 birders participate in this census annually, contributing to the world’s longest-running community science project. The bird count has contributed to hundreds of scientific publications and is considered one of the 24 major indicators of climate impacts by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Managed overall by the National Audubon Society, the count features individual efforts taking place between Dec. 14 and Jan. 4 each year. Each count covers a circular area about 15 miles in diameter and they attempt to document every single bird in that circular area during a 24-hour period from midnight to midnight.
The North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier coordinates two of these circles, one in a 7.5-mile radius around Plainfield planned for Saturday, Dec. 19. The other is called the Hunger Mountain Christmas Bird Count circle which covers a 7.5-mile radius around Mount Hunger including terrain in Stowe, Waterbury, Duxbury, Middlesex, Bolton and Worcester.
The Hunger Mountain count will be done Sunday, Dec. 20. Area birders can participate by counting birds while out walking in neighborhoods or on local trails or even from the comfort of home by tallying birds observed visiting backyard feeders.
To learn more or sign-up, visit online at northbranchnaturecenter.org/christmas-bird-count. Questions? Contact Zac Cota at zac@northbranchnaturecenter.org.