Brown: It’s Christmastime, which means it’s time to count birds

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Have you started noticing birds? Are you secretly jealous of a friend’s bird camera? Do bird calls cause you to shush your friends and family?

As millennials enter midlife, many face one of the most insidious hazards of aging: Sudden Onset Birding, or SOB.

I suffered an attack of Sudden Onset Birding nine years ago when my nature-loving son got a bird feeder for Christmas. This led us to join our local Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count group in Grand Rapids, Minn., in 2017.

Naturally, I first went because my middle-school son needed a ride. But he left for college two years ago. Last Sunday, I tromped along a frozen river amid 25-below temperatures in the futile hope of seeing a rare duck.

After nine years of progression, my birding condition appears to be terminal. I treat it with more birds, and so can you.

“We have a state wildlife action plan, and that action plan is heavily influenced by which birds’ populations are healthy and which are declining. And a lot of that information comes from the Christmas bird count,” said Dale Gentry, director of conservation for the Audubon Upper Mississippi River regional office in the Twin Cities.

Gentry said that Audubon data collected by volunteers every year helped reveal that North America lost 30% of its bird population since 1970. That’s about three billion fewer birds, mostly due to lost habitat. He said the data also show how climate change is altering the migration and breeding grounds of many bird species. For example, American robins are more apt to spend the winter in Minnesota than ever before.

Fifty years ago, bird data documented the terrifying decline of bald eagles and trumpeter swans. This inspired endangered status for those beloved species and stronger environmental policies. Then survey participants observed the triumphant recovery of eagles and swans over more recent decades. Here in Itasca County, I see these birds all the time, each one a majestic reminder that wrongs can be made right.

The Christmas bird count runs from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5 each year. By fixing the dates, bird behavior can be accurately compared year to year. Local volunteers schedule their count on one specific day within 15-mile circles located across North, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands.

You don’t need much to participate. A pair of binoculars help but aren’t required. A bird book to identify species will come in handy, or a bird identification app like Merlin. A camera helps record tricky or rare species.

That’s how I got started. As a rookie, I had the good fortune to be paired with one of our state’s great naturalists, John Latimer, host and producer of the public radio show Phenology on KAXE-Northern Community Radio. Latimer leads nature education programming shared in elementary classrooms across the state. He also became a mentor for my son, who is preparing for a career in forestry.

On Sunday, Latimer and I returned to this annual ritual, joining others to find birds near the Prairie River in Itasca County. We saw common woodpeckers, including the pileated, hairy, downy and red-bellied. A big flock of bohemian waxwings gathered in some American bittersweet near one intersection. Some pine grosbeaks sifted through road gravel for hidden treasures.

You might think the Audubon count is all about birds, but Gentry points out that it’s really more about people connecting over a shared interest.

“It’s the big one,” said Gentry. “We all get a little fidgety in April and May when we start thinking about migration and again in the late summer looking forward to the fall. But this is the biggest time of year when we all get together to go birding.”

Local groups often hold potlucks after the count to share stories and compare notes. The compiler adds the totals and sends the data to Audubon.

But it all starts with people looking up. In the trees, along the prairies or even swimming in ice cold water, we may find inspiration in birds that survive Minnesota winters with a plucky spirit that embodies our state. Warning: The activity may become habit-forming.