Members of Wild River Audubon gathered December 14, 2019 to participate in the National Audubon Christmas Bird Count. It was the chapter’s 44th count, beginning in 1975 and continuing every year to the present. This year, 26 individuals participated either by driving in designated areas in southern Chisago County or by watching at feeders within the count area. Birders tallied 42 species including a Wilson’s Snipe on open water in the Carlos Avery wildlife refuge and a rare Northern Goshawk as it killed a pheasant in mid-air.
National Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count dates back to 1900 when banker and amateur birder Frank Chapman proposed a venture to count birds on Christmas Day rather than kill them. The hunt had its origins in an ancient Celtic practice of killing a wren for good luck around the solstice. In Minnesota, the earliest Christmas Bird Counts were done in the 1920s on foot.
Everywhere on the North American continent, the count area is a circle 15 miles in diameter. Wild River’s count circle is centered at County Roads 12 and 20 outside Center City, and includes parts of Wild River State Park, Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area, and the Wisconsin bank of the St. Croix River at St. Croix Falls.
The count takes place within a 10-day period either side of Christmas. Next year’s Wild River Count will take place on Saturday, December 19, 2020.
For more information on National Audubon’s count, see https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count#
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