In an annual ritual that has now spanned over eight decades, droves of bird lovers and citizen scientists took to the East Bay's soggy outdoors, all for the love of avian accounting. Despite the downpour, groups armed with binoculars were spotted across the Emeryville Marina last Sunday, meticulously tallying every possible bird within a 15-mile radius of Oakland, as reported by Berkeleyside.
Bill Saiki might have beamed in his bright green raincoat, but he was there to quickly learn the intricate art of bird spotting under the guidance of seasoned birders. Among them was Ruth Timme, a birding aficionado who had attended the Oakland Christmas Bird Count. She shared with Berkeleyside that apart from contributing to scientific data, birding is "a very calming, meditative hobby." Timme and over 300 participants joined this year's 82nd counting extravaganza on Dec. 17, undeterred by less than ideal weather conditions.
The long-standing event is part of a 124-year-old national effort by the National Audubon Society, which pivoted from a grim Christmas tradition of hunting birds to counting them instead, as a conservationist rebuke to the past times. Each year, tens of thousands nationwide participate, collectively contributing to a crucial body of data scientists worldwide find invaluable. These citizen-sourced data points, uploaded through the eBird app, play a key role in gauging avian population trends, as Viviana Wolinsky, co-compiler for the Oakland count, underlined in her statement retrieved by Berkeleyside.
The count wasn't just a data-gathering mission. It was also an educational foray and a community-building exercise. The Golden Gate Bird Alliance, the group behind the local counting activities, reportedly runs programs to diversify the birding community, reaching out specifically to BIPOC and LGBTQ individuals. "Birding over the years has skewed white and old," Wolinsky remarked in an interview with Berkeleyside, highlighting the Alliance's initiative to create a more inclusive bird-watching community.
The day closed with a communal meal where birders gathered to share food and their findings in a preliminary "countdown" that heralds the population trends before the official numbers roll out. This year, alongside the shared camaraderie, the count hinted at a worrying trend—diverse sightings but in dwindling numbers, attributed possibly to climate change and habitat loss. An Audubon Society climate report echoed these observations, warning of extinction risks to North American birds.
Nevertheless, the spirit of the count and the significance of its purpose saw participants like Saiki braving the elements and laying the groundwork for their future in birding. "The few times that I've gone out with Ruth have been really eye-opening and amazing, and now with this group, it’s even more so," Saiki told Berkeleyside. After a wet yet fulfilling day of birding, attendees committed to making their marks on the eBird database, continuing a tradition that goes beyond a simple holiday pastime.
