WHEAT RIDGE As their name suggests, the Tuesday Birders meet every week, armed with binoculars and birding books, ready to fill out checklists of the birds they see, but that doesn’t mean they ignore other species.
“There’s something fuzzy up near the top of that tree, on the second branch to the right,” said Barb Isaac, a Littleton woman who migrated to birdwatching after knee problems ruled out two previous avocations — long-distance bicycle touring and marathons.
A closer inspection through a spotting scope revealed a napping porcupine. It remained utterly oblivious to the 30 humans taking turns for a look at it.
“When you don’t see birds, you look at whatever you can,” Isaac said cheerily.
But birds are the focus of the upcoming Christmas Bird Count, which takes place this year between Dec. 15 and Jan. 5. During those weeks, novices are welcome to join experienced birdwatchers in the National Audubon Society’s long-lived annual wildlife census, now 112 years old.
For $5, anyone can join birders assigned to circles of territory that are hiked, skied or driven in a day-long effort to log every bird recognized by sight or song. (That also buys Vol. 65 of the annual Christmas Bird Count book, which recaps counts from throughout the Western Hemisphere.)
Joining an official bird count might sound intimidating to anyone who’s still puzzling out the nuances that distinguish an English sparrow from a mountain chickadee. But don’t worry, said Alison Kondler, a master birder and longtime Roxborough Park naturalist.
“Anyone can do the Christmas Bird Count,” she said. “There will always be someone in your group who can identify the birds, and it’s a fantastic way to learn your birds.”
Interested? Here’s some advice from Brock McCormick, a wildlife biologist with the Granby office of the U.S. Forest Service, which helps coordinate a Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 17.
“You’re looking for movement,” McCormick said. “Is something scurrying in the underbrush?”
He added that it can help to look at photographs of birds you’re likely to see.
“Spend time browsing through a bird book, looking at different birds, noticing the differences between them — this one has white wing bars, and that one doesn’t. Sometimes you’ll only get to see a bird for a second or two. If you don’t know to look for white wing bars, you won’t know what it was.”
That can be a challenge even for experienced birdwatchers. At the Tuesday Birders’ trip to Anderson Park, they initially counted 230 Canada geese waddling through an adjacent field. Looking more closely, they realized that five of the geese were a smaller subspecies known as cackling geese.
Then someone said, “Look at that one goose with the orange legs.”
They realized there was another species, too. Looking it up in “The Sibley Guide to Birds,” they identified it as a juvenile greater white-fronted goose, whose bright legs and matching beak distinguished it from the rest of the flock.
“You never know what you’re going to see,” Kondler said.
“I went out last week on Sunday, and we saw so many birds that shouldn’t have been there — fall migrants, even warblers. It’s been a good year.”
And Kondler knows that sometimes the best birdwatching is right outside the front door.
She was 5 years old during the 1982 Christmas blizzard, when the snow was so deep that she burrowed a tunnel from her house far into the yard. She decided to punch an observation hole in the tunnel, and sprinkled birdseed around the perimeter.
“That was my first experience birdwatching,” she said. “They were really close. Then the cat found out about it, and my mom made me tear it down.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
Get started
Interested in joining a Christmas Bird Count event? More than 40 happen throughout the state by Colorado chapters of the National Audubon Society. (Novice volunteers may find it more challenging to actually locate a count to join than it is to identify a bird. Volunteers over age 18 pay $5 to participate. Each count is organized by a count compiler who directs volunteers working in 15-mile diameter circles. Among the organizations coordinating counts between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5:
• Denver Field Ornithologists () hold two counts in the Denver area: One on Dec. 17, and another on Jan. 1. Learn more by calling 303-420-5039.
• The Audubon Society of Greater Denver () count starts at 8 a.m. Dec. 17 at the Audubon Center at Chatfield Reservoir, 11280 Waterton Road.
• The Boulder County Audubon Society () count is Dec. 18; call 303-702-9589 for details.
• The Fort Collins count is on Dec. 17; visit for details.
• Loveland’s count is on Jan. 1, 2012; email quetzal65@comcast.net for information.
• U.S. Forest Service Sulphur Ranger District count near Granby is on Dec. 17; call 970-887-4108 for details.
What to wear
Dressing for the Christmas Bird Count isn’t just for the birds. Last year’s coldest Colorado count was in Gunnison, with a low of minus 2 degrees, and the high was only 24 degrees warmer that day was well below freezing. Take these tips from the Tuesday Birders:
• Wear layers of comfortable clothing that will keep you warm for several hours: Walking shoes, pants, a shirt with a fleece or wool long-sleeved sweater, a multi-pocketed vest or jacket, hat, mittens or gloves, and sunglasses.
• Bring a snack, a pad and pencil for taking notes, and a sack lunch, since Christmas Bird Counts can go past noon.
• Optional: Binoculars and a bird book. The count leader and other volunteers will have these, and usually are happy to share.
• Watch: A video of the Tuesday Birders
Claire Martin
