Holiday gifts: Birders spot goldeneyes, waxwings

The Orono-Old Town Christmas Bird Count happened last week. At dawn the temperature was 7 degrees, and a foot of snow covered the ground.

Thirty birders went out to cover their assigned territory within the 15-mile-diameter circle registered with the National Audubon Society. Some birders went in groups; others went on their own.

Birders are intense about their interest in birds. Most spend the whole day looking for birds, keeping a list of species, and the numbers of each. Most travel through their territory by car, stopping to hike down trails to look for birds.

My group of six birders hiked down a half-mile trail to the Penobscot River. Most of the river was frozen over. We wanted to see ducks, so we had to find fast-moving water. The snow was deep in places due to drifting. We took turns breaking trail.

It was worth the cold and hard walking. Our reward was seeing six common goldeneyes, a species of duck, close up; we could see their yellow eyes! We also saw three common mergansers, another kind of duck. Both species are used to swimming and diving in cold, fast-moving water. We also saw an adult bald eagle flying up the river.

We spent our day going from a warm car out in the bitter cold, and back into the warm car.

Two veteran Christmas Bird Count birders don’t have a car.

One said, “I was out 11 hours and walked 10 cold and snowy miles.”

Two of those hours were even in the dark! His reward was a flock of 70 Bohemian waxwings and one cold, forlorn robin.

The other birder without a car walked his entire route and said, “My fingers were too cold to hold my binoculars up to see some birds, so I don’t even know if they were sparrows or finches.” Nevertheless, he turned in a good bird list, including another bald eagle.

Another birder has a car, and he also has had two hip replacements and some knee problems, yet did his route, by car and by walking through the cold and snow. His rewards were finding a flock of beautiful Bohemian waxwings, and also a flock of flashy evening grosbeaks.

Another birder said, “In four hours of walking through the woods, I only found one bird.” That bird was a ruffed grouse, a hard bird to find that day – one of only three found.

Another birder had a husband in the hospital. She found the only mockingbird in the count – near the hospital.

And yet another birder is blind, and he walked through his neighborhood, identifying the species and keeping track of the number of each species. He has learned the different contact notes that help “birds of a feather stay together.”

And I know, from 20 years of running this Christmas Bird Count, all the birders will forget the discomfort. They will forget the long intervals with no birds at all. They will remember the avian highlights of this day, and say “yes” to the next time!

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.