Metro naturalist James Davis has a different kind of resolution to start the new year. On Saturday, he'll join dozens of local enthusiasts to count birds, continuing a century-old audit that has led to new understanding of the effects of climate change and habitat loss.Throughout the Americas, birders and backyard naturalists are participating in the 113th Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The annual count, begun in protest over "side hunt" wildlife slaughters, has evolved into both fun competition and scientific research that shows that even common birds react when their habitat changes.
Portland counters will tally chickadees and nuthatches, record bushtits and juncos and even chart the ubiquitous crow. Some counters will huddle in rain and cold at bird gathering spots like Sauvie Island and the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, while others will pull up a comfy chair to the window to record the comings and goings at their bird feeder.
Occasionally, counters will spot a rare bird, one that wandered too far or was blown off course. But that is not the objective of the Christmas Bird Count – known among birders as the CBC. Rather, data from the world's longest-running citizen survey is used to spot trends in bird populations.
The Christmas Bird Count was started in 1900 by the National Audubon Society to counter traditional holiday hunts where individuals or teams competed to see how many winged and furred animals they could kill.
The Audubon Society of Portland organized its first Christmas Bird Count in 1926. The Portland metro area, where last year 208 field observers and 112 feeder watchers spotted a record 127 species, has one of the highest participation rates of any city, according to the National Audubon Society.
The count has spread to cities in Central and South America. Volunteer teams tally birds within a counting circle – 15-miles in diameter – on a single day between Dec. 15 and Jan. 5. The number of counting circles has steadily increased to about 2,250. Participation also has climbed to 54,262 field observers and 8,965 feeder watchers in the 2012 count.
With the CBC's popularity comes some intense – but good-natured – competition.
"There are warm-weather cities in California, Texas and Florida that have been competing for the most species seen," said Davis, an avid birder who has taught outdoor education for 35 years. "They're all full of crazy birders. They'll be out there at midnight, counting owls."
The counting circles stretch over all types of habitat, the better to include a true diversity of birds. In Portland, counters will watch urban feeders, suburban wetlands and pockets of wild forest and field, including natural areas owned and managed by Metro.
Preserving and restoring wildlife habitat was one of the criteria for the natural areas program, which was established by bond measures in 1995 and 2006. The levies allowed Metro to purchase about 12,000 acres that is undergoing restoration for wildlife habitat, water quality and outdoor recreation. The natural areas range from the 1,143-acre Chehalem Ridge to pockets like 20-acre Deep Creek and its tributaries, and a range of habitats, including the rare Oregon oak savannah.
The Metro Council voted last month to ask voters in May to consider a 5-year, local option levy to extend the natural areas program to targeted areas, to maintain parks and to provide more opportunities for people to be in nature.
The levy would add 9.6 cents per $1,000 of assessed value on real property, and raise approximately $10 million annually. The owner of a house valued at $200,000 would pay about $19.20 annually for five years.
The levy would allow Metro to continue improving and protecting water quality for salmon and other native fish; remove invasive weeds in natural areas; replace aging parks facilities; and offer more opportunities for people to learn about nature.
Natural areas provide homes to native species amid spreading urbanization. They also can act as links to other undeveloped patches, so that wildlife remains healthy and diverse, according to a 2010 report on wildlife corridors by Metro natural resource scientists and its Sustainability Office.
About 209 bird species call the Portland area home, for at least part of the year. They include year-round residents, such as robins and some finches, and migratory waterfowl and song birds, such as colorful Western tanagers and acrobatic swallows.
State or federal lists warn that the future of 22 of those species are at risk, their numbers falling as development eats up their historical habitats. Most of the birds listed need healthy riparian habitats, stream sides filled with native trees and shrubs and clean flowing water.
"Connectivity can be difficult or impossible to regain after urbanization, yet it is critically important to the Portland-Vancouver region's wildlife," according to the report. "Over time, isolated habitat patches tend to lose wildlife species, and without connectivity, these species cannot repopulate an area. Improving connectivity will help maintain the region's biodiversity by allowing species to move as needed to fulfill their life history requirements.
In recent years, the Christmas Bird Count also has revealed some of the effects of climate change on birds. Nationally, at least 45 common birds range farther north than in the past.
Scientists say about 32 percent of common local migratory birds, like the black-capped chickadee and the dark-eyed junco, may disappear from Oregon. Less-familiar birds, such as the blue grosbeak, the dickcissel and Cassin's sparrow, may push their range north into Oregon.
"It's getting to be warmer and warmer temperatures," Davis said. "The Christmas Bird Count data, by itself, shows very significant evidence that the winter weather is warmer in many parts of the United States, because many birds that have been at a certain latitude now are 400 miles north."
Many of Metro's natural areas teem with courting and nesting birds during the spring and summer. They also often are good spots to simply bird watch, Davis said.
For the 2013 Christmas Bird Count, Davis and his team will count birds in Beaverton – not the first place you'd think to bird watch, he acknowledged with a laugh. After meeting for breakfast at a pancake house, the volunteers will spread out into the field.
"You start when it's getting light and you do your job until it's dark," Davis said.
At the end of the day, the volunteers share their counts and experiences. "Every now and then something unusual will be seen here," he said. "The most common birds you see are the birds in your backyard, the ones that come to your bird feeder."
Davis hasn't spotted a rare visitor, but he remembered one CBC several years ago, as he counted birds near the Willamette River. Just after dawn, three large flocks of Trumpeter swans flew overhead. He estimated almost 300 of the huge, bright white birds.
"It's hard to get more spectacular than that," Davis said.