The Christmas Fowl
Participants in the 2006 Christmas Bird Count documented 13 Great Blue Herons on Fermilab grounds, an all-time record for the site.
On December 16, when most of us were busily planning for the holidays and looking forward to vacation time, the Accelerator Division's Peter Kasper and an assemblage of bird enthusiasts were out in the woods at 4:30 a.m., playing recordings to attract owls.
Each year, avid birders gather in late December and early January for the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Over 50,000 people are estimated to have participated in over 1800 counts throughout the western hemisphere during the Audubon Society's 107th annual event. About 80 people comprising 10 different teams made up the Fermilab/Batavia count circle, which centers on the north boundary of Fermilab and extends 15 miles in diameter.
The teams sighted 74 species of birds and 39,824 individuals in the area, including 53 species and 6593 individuals on Fermilab grounds. A female ring-necked duck was the lone representative of her species, and the only one ever seen within the Fermilab site. "They're normally a migrant, but with a mild winter, the probability of them showing up increases," said Kasper. Other waterfowl, including the Hooded Merganser, Gadwall, Pie-billed Grebe, and Great Blue Heron were also counted in record numbers this year on site. Conspicuously absent from this year's count was the Ring-necked Pheasant, which has been observed every year since the local CBC started in 1976. "That's probably because of coyotes," Kasper said, who also added that the pheasants are in fact not a native species, but introduced from Asia.
At the end of the long day, many of the birders gathered at one birder's home in Batavia, where they warmed up their bodies while tallying the results. "Only the hard-core birders stay all day," said Kasper. "Then we have chili, drinks and various good food."
A complete database of survey results since 1976 can be found at Peter Kasper's Christmas Bird Count website.