In the Americas, Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) are a time-honored tradition that many look forward to each holiday season. It’s a chance to get together with friends and family, enjoy seeing birds, and contribute essential data on their populations.
A brief history of the event dates back to 1900, when ornithologist Frank Chapman proposed a “Christmas Bird Census” as an alternative to the traditional “Christmas Side Hunt”. That first year, 27 hardy birders tallied 90 species across the United States of America. In the 126 years since then, it has grown to over 2,600 circles with thousands of birders across the Americas. The collected data has also been beneficial, informing groundbreaking studies such as the 3 Billion Birds Gone, which was an eye-opening paper on the state of our birds.
I do not typically participate in CBCs… mostly because I do not like to spend the day outside in the cold and wet, and as I have made my home in Oregon… that’s most of the winter. To appease my husband, who is happy to be outside regardless of the weather, I relented, and we found a CBC circle in Sunriver, Oregon that sounded interesting. It helped that I have a friend who leads a section, so we signed up. A few weeks later, we were on the road from coast to mountains to high desert.
Our sector of the count was Benham Falls on the Deschutes River. For those of you who have not had the privilege of birding in the Bend/Sunriver area of Oregon, it’s drop-dead gorgeous at all times of the year. In the summer, the sweet smell of Juniper wafts from the trees in the warm, sunny breeze. In the winter, the dry, cold air carries bird calls from far away. We always joke that everyone in Bend is so active. You can’t go down the block without seeing people cycling, jogging, or just enjoying being outside. Besides being one of the best woodpecker locations in the country, there are multitudes of reasons to go birding in Bend.
We were the first ones at the trailhead that morning, arriving just around 8:00 am. The snow had barely been compacted on the trail. We started heading upstream just in case the other team did not make it that far and did not see or hear much, so we headed back towards our section. Just about that moment, we had a feeding flock calling in the distance heading our direction with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a couple of Dark-eyed Juncos.
Our section started just below Benham Falls, which is less a falls and more a series of rapids, but still awe-inspiring, especially with a fresh blanket of snow on the surrounding landscape. At the base of the falls was a wide, flatter section of the river where we spotted an American Dipper bobbing its behind and foraging through the shallow rapids. We would hear and see two more on this hike – a dipper high count for me!
The birds were few and far between in this icy landscape, but we did happen upon another feeding flock about a mile or so from the original one. The birds were quickly moving through the pines, chattering the whole way. It was primarily composed of Mountain Chickadees, more kinglets, and a hat-trick of nuthatches: White-breasted, Red-breasted, and Pygmy! They were pretty far up in the canopy, but a little while later, we had a much lower group, and Mountain Chickadees were just feet above our heads.
Across the river, we heard a single Red Crossbill calling. Our friend had scouted the route the day before and had tons! Just before hitting the halfway point of the route, we had a Varied Thrush flush from the bushes and land in a tree beside the river – a good bird for this time of year!
We headed back on the road to cover a bit more of the section, but we didn’t have much. There were lots of hikers driving into the trailhead to enjoy the beautiful day, so we were glad we got out there early. That evening was a countdown dinner at the Sunriver Nature Center, with lots of enthusiastic birders sharing their day’s sightings, highlights included a Great Gray Owl and American Goshawk, and bemoaning missed birds.
Check out our podcast, Hannah and Erik Go Birding, for more about this adventure!
I dipped on the Dipper when I was in Oregon – looks like the Bend was the place to be