Saturday I participated in our Rockport Christmas Bird Count. If that sounds like a boring project believe me it ISN'T! The team I was with walked a lot. We trudged into boggy marshes and on gravel roads. We were yelled at by an angry woman who claimed we were trespassing on some unfenced property (we probably were). We were challenged by a State Game Warden who had received a call from a rancher about possible poachers. (We weren't). We had a warning from one rural resident to be on the lookout for a dangerous pack of wild dogs. (Never saw them). There is always something going on when one is in a bird count.
Christmas Bird Counts are nothing new. They have been happening for more than 100 years. You guess-timate the numbers of birds in a flock. You also record all the species seen. In the winter there can be some nice surprises. Our final compilation is not in. It should number around 150 birds. That will be in the top twenty or better in the entire country. Our leader was retired medical missionary, Dr. Robert Edwards. He and Dolores served in Colombia for more than thirty-years. That is one of the birdiest places in the world. Robert knows his birds. He can also HEAR them and recognize who is calling. I can't hear a horn honk so am no good at that. I can still see pretty good. Anyway, it was fun but tiresome.
