Backyard count helps track bird population trends

By Steve Miller, Journal staff | Thursday, February 14, 2008

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Don Gardner spotted the big white falcon on a little snow-patched knoll overlooking a prairie-dog town east of the Black Hills.

It was late afternoon on Feb. 17, 2007, and the temperature was dropping. As Gardner took notes in a tablet, the white falcon flew south a little ways, and Gardner followed in his pickup on the road southeast of his home in Fairburn. He took more notes.

It was day two of the 2007 Great Backyard Bird Count.

Gardner returned just after daybreak the next morning and spotted the white falcon again in that same area. The falcon flew low over Gardner's pickup, and he took more notes.

Gardner drove back that evening and again saw the falcon, which he now believes was a gyrfalcon. The gyrfalcon is considered the largest falcon, and in medieval times was generally reserved for kings and nobles.

Gardner has driven the area many times since but never saw the white falcon again. "When he was gone, he was really gone," Gardner said this week.

The falcon was just one of hundreds of birds Gardner saw during the four-day Great Backyard Bird Count a year ago. "I saw more hawks and owls and birds in those four days," he recalled this week.

"I've been driving the roads, but I haven't seen nothing like I did those four days," he said.

Gardner loves to drive the back roads over the prairies and hills watching for birds. He has seen a screech owl on the agate fields east of Fairburn and an albino robin in his yard. He and a friend saw a group of about 15 bald eagles near the agate fields just before last year's bird count. He couldn't include them in his official count list, however.

But Gardner plans to take part again in this year's Great Backyard Bird Count, which runs Friday through Monday, Feb. 15-18.

This year, in addition to his notebook and binoculars, Gardner will carry a Sony digital camera he got for his 72nd birthday last June.

The Great Backyard Bird Count invites families, individuals, classrooms and community groups to tally the numbers and kinds of birds that they see in their yards, area parks and publicly owned land such as national wildlife refuges, national forests and state parks during the four days.

The bird-count volunteers have gathered important information that has helped experts track bird population trends, such as the decline in crows due to West Nile virus and the migration patterns of sandhill cranes, according to Patrice Lynch, wildlife biologist for the Black Hills National Forest.

Crows formerly were among the top five most populous birds in the country. "Now, they're the ninth or tenth most reported bird," Lynch said.

The counters also are asked to take note of weather conditions, which helps track the effect of climate on bird presence, she said.

The count is conducted in cooperation with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and state and federal agencies.

In 1998, the first year of the Great Backyard Bird Count, people in Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota turned in 63 checklists with a total of 4,023 birds. In 2007, after 10 years of data collection, the three states had 1,318 checklists with 166,350 birds.

In the Black Hills last year, bird watchers turned in reports from areas including Spearfish, Sturgis, Rapid City, Custer and Hill City, Lynch said.

Prizes are awarded to selected individuals who submit their photos and videos of birds and bird watchers taken during the count.

To participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count

If you have Internet access, go to Cornell Lab's Web site, www.birdsource.org/gbbc. Data can be submitted directly to the lab on the site. Internet data must be submitted by March 1.

People without Internet access can get instructions and forms from any Black Hills National Forest district offices. Forest Service personnel will collect the data from the volunteers and submit it for them. Volunteers are asked to submit the data sheets to the Forest Service by Tuesday, Feb. 26.

For more information, call Patrice Lynch at the Mystic Ranger District at 343-1567, or Brad Phillips at the Hell Canyon Ranger District at 673-4853.

All information regarding the Great Backyard Bird Count can be viewed by going to Cornell Lab's Web site. The site also provides tips for improving bird watching and identification skills.

The Internet results will be updated hourly with animated maps and graphs.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com