Michigan men embrace ‘SOB’ title to continue 126-year-old annual Audubon bird count

By Kim Bellware

The Washington Put up

On a quiet, grime street in Michigan on the Saturday earlier than Christmas, John Lowry scanned the sky, prepared to put in writing down on a clipboard the numbers for his contribution to one of many longest-running citizen-powered knowledge tasks in North America.

Annually, the Audubon Society’s Christmas Hen Depend attracts tens of 1000’s of birders (and typically “SOBs” and “FOBs” — spouses and associates of birders) for the 126-year-old occasion that mixes birding and knowledge science.

Lowry, co-organizer of his designated circle — a 15-mile space the place birdwatchers collect yearly — and 20 others select a day between December 14 and January 5 to conduct their depend. Contributors divide the circle into seven areas and fan out with telescopes and binoculars, eyes and ears sharply tuned to allow them to depend each fowl they see or hear from dawn to sundown.

The Christmas Depend’s long-standing database has helped scientists observe fowl inhabitants declines and modifications within the surroundings, mentioned Ben Haywood, who directs group science for the Audubon Society. Haywood mentioned the fowl counts have unfold to South America and the Caribbean through the years, pushing the Audubon Society to a document 2,693 counts final yr by greater than 83,000 members.

“We have now greater than a century of really standardized knowledge: folks go to the identical locations, on the similar time of yr, on the lookout for the identical species,” says Haywood. “That could be a very beneficial knowledge supply as a result of it’s extra sturdy than simply randomly broadcasting at a sure time.”

Standing on a mud street about 50 miles from Detroit in Oceola Twp., Mich., Lowry performs a fowl name by an app on his telephone, hoping to get a response from a close-by red-breasted nuthatch earlier than he is interrupted by the distant sound of a gun. A neighbor is taking pictures at a goal – not the birds – so Lowry waits patiently to listen to a name. He quickly will get a response – from a white-breasted nuthatch – and provides it to the depend.

“For some, listening to the fowl is the expertise,” says Lowry, 62, who has been doing the Christmas Hen Depend for a minimum of thirty years.

A century earlier, gunshots would have been the defining sound of a Christmas fowl outing, in accordance with Marshall Iliff of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which research birds and the conservation of their habitat. Iliff additionally helps handle the eBird mission, a worldwide open supply platform for fowl sighting knowledge.

“Hen counts really began as a option to transition from taking pictures birds at Christmas to counting birds,” Iliff mentioned, including that the pre-1900 custom of hunters competing to shoot essentially the most birds led to some species being decimated.

In 1900, Frank Chapman, an ornithologist on the American Museum of Pure Historical past, urged hunters to commerce of their weapons for binoculars. A century later, the Depend has exploded in reputation.

With the Christmas Hen Depend on observe to set a brand new document for participation, Lowry believes folks in more and more remoted occasions are being drawn to actions that construct group. It is also an inclusive interest for people who find themselves blind or have mobility points, he mentioned. Folks can take part from their properties in the event that they stay in counting circles and report the counts from their entrance window or yard.

“There is a manner for folks to take part on this with out having to sneak by swamps,” Lowry mentioned.

Lowry likes to stalk. He drives over bumpy, unpaved roads, crosses parks and gathers with fellow fowl watchers on the shore of a half-frozen lake to ensure no fowl goes uncounted.

Brian Barnabo, 40, is without doubt one of the birders who joined Lowry. He described going from being an everyday fowl watcher 12 years in the past to somebody who now plans holidays with birdwatching in thoughts. It was a straightforward behavior to fall into: Barnabo began noticing extra fascinating birds after he obtained his Australian shepherd combine, Bear, and began taking him for walks repeatedly.

“I used to be simply blown away by it for the primary few weeks,” Barnabo mentioned, describing the yellow-headed warbler because the fowl that piqued his curiosity. “Then I went out and acquired each (birding) information there was.”

Sean Bachman, 60, one other member of the circle, began birding as a 10-year-old and lived on a lake in Howell, Michigan.

“One Christmas I obtained up and determined to depend all of the birds on the lake and I by no means stopped,” he mentioned.

Bachman mentioned he noticed the fowl inhabitants change because the area reworked from rural farmland to suburban residential areas and golf programs.

“You lose habitat and fields; pasture birds are more durable to seek out,” Bachman mentioned. “In case you go outdoors within the spring, you may get 10 to twenty warblers. Over time, I’ve seen fewer and fewer birds within the space.”

Haywood of the Audubon Society mentioned the Christmas Hen Depend highlights the ability of on a regular basis residents utilizing fowl expertise to help scientific analysis. Many years of information have supported a whole bunch of peer-reviewed research and publications, such because the Audubon Society’s 2025 State of the Birds report, he mentioned.

The report introduced a “fairly sobering actuality” of how birds in most habitats have suffered main inhabitants declines because the Nineteen Seventies — a worrying signal provided that animals are proxies for environmental well being, Haywood mentioned.

“If the habitats can not help birds, they don’t seem to be wholesome for different wildlife or for folks,” Haywood mentioned.

However Cornell’s Iliff mentioned the decline would not should be the top of the story. They could be a springboard for optimistic change.

The perfect-known instance in fowl communities is the bald eagle, which was endangered within the late Nineteen Sixties because of the overuse of an insecticide that was discovered to weaken the fowl’s eggshells. Information helped usher in laws banning using the insecticide DDT.

In 2007, bald eagles have been faraway from the endangered species record.

When counting day got here to an in depth for Lowry, Bachman and Barnabo, their lists have been full of woodpeckers, a short-eared owl, chickadees and three species of swans. They have been about to go to their last remark spot after they stopped to search for.

Barnabo shortly snapped photographs of a bald eagle hovering overhead.