In 2021, we partnered with the refuge and Harney Basin Wetlands Collaborative partners to pilot an effort using autonomous recording units (ARU) to expand monitoring efforts in the Harney Basin.
The 2024 Tribal Stewards have finished their six-week summer fieldwork program. The six-person crew, all members of the Burns Paiute Tribe, participated in conservation work at Malheur National Forest, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.
This year, 13 field birders navigated a partially dense patchy foggy and occasionally sunlit landscape that became fully engulfed by dreaded fog by end of the count. Temperatures were mild (25-39) compared to last year’s record low of -18°F. The lack of snow, partially open water, relatively high number of observers and a day of scouting before the count combined for a high count.
Depending on which circles one moves in, Christmastime is also about birds —live birds, in situ. Not just basted turkeys. Nor that mixed flock of “four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree”. The Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count, a citizen science effort aimed at monitoring bird population trends on a massive scale, is a long-standing tradition dating back to 1901.
We set out along the Blitzen River, and soon we were in the vast expanse of the lake with birds EVERYWHERE! The idea of “counting” seemed comical. How do you count what must have been thousands of birds rising from the lake, circling, shifting?
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