The Dallas County Conservation Department held the annual Christmas Bird Count Saturday, with 26 birders divided into five groups and assigned different areas of the county to observe and record bird species and their numbers.
The data collected will be shared with the National Audubon Association and the Iowa Audubon Association. Bird counts such as this are held across the U.S. in the two weeks before and after Christmas .
The bird-count results give a snapshot that allows scientists to see national trends in bird populations. If certain species of birds are in decline, scientists maybe able to do something to help the birds recover.
I was with three other men who made observations on Mike Delaney’s property on the banks of the North Raccoon River near Dallas Center. From our vantage point, we could see activity in the river, in the floodplain that is planted with prairie grass and in the nearby woods.
We had a good view of a large sandbar, with geese feeding in the shallows of the river. We were surprised to see a coyote running east along the length of sandbar. It had probably been spooked by the hunter who appeared a few minutes later.
It was a beautiful day for mid-December. The temperature was 50 degrees, with bright sunshine and no wind — a perfect day for birding.
In a few hours of birding, we recorded 16 species of birds. The only unusual or rare bird seen was a pileated woodpecker. Mike saw it a few times this past summer.
Besides the pileated, we observed five other species of Iowa’s woodpeckers, five red-tailed hawks, three bald eagles, 13 Canada geese and several other common winter birds. It was a surprise to see a yellow-rumped warbler and one robin that had not flown south for the winter.
Ty Smedes, a member of our group, had an electronic bird calling program on his smart phone. He hooked it to a speaker and used it to call various birds to the feeder such as chickadees and nuthatches.
He played the call of a barred owl, and in a few minutes a real owl answered the call. We saw a pair of owls fly into the woods near us. Ty played the call again, and one of the pair flew in closer, maybe to find the strange owl that was infringing on his territory. It landed in a branch in the trees about 50 feet away and watched us.
The recording was played again, and the owl flew in closer, landing in the tree directly above us. The owl observed us for a minute and then flew off. The second owl stayed farther away and watched us from a distance.
The results for all of the groups of bird watchers were a total of 49 species observed. Some of the more interesting species seen were three Carolina wrens, two winter wrens, five pilieated woodpeckers, one northern shrike and one Merlin, a small hawk.
Driving home, I saw more red-tailed hawks, flocks of starlings and pigeons around farmsteads and a field with seven deer grazing under a beautiful sunset.
