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Christmas ended six weeks ago, but the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies’ annual Christmas Bird Count is wrapping up this month.
The initiative is part of a national bird census, and participants estimate that roughly 1,200 species are at risk of extinction in the next century.
Aspen volunteers perched throughout town counted and identified different species in late December and early January, and ACES is submitting their results to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology this week.
Rebecca Weiss is an ACES naturalist who also leads the nonprofit’s birding program, spearheading Aspen’s bird count for 15 years.
Weiss spoke with Aspen Public Radio’s Regan Mertz about the citizen science initiative in Aspen and how the bird count helps conservation efforts.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Regan Mertz: Why is citizen science — community science — so important?
Rebecca Weiss: When scientists do their work in the field, they’re often isolated. It’s always been a challenge to communicate what scientists do to the public in lay terminology — making it accessible and interesting and engaging to the public.
Citizen science is a way that involves regular people, like you and me — anyone — regardless of your background, skills [and] experience, to jump in and get involved in a hands-on way. In that way, people feel personally invested in what’s happening and the information — the conclusions — that come out of the work.
Mertz: Moving into when you were actually out in the field with citizens, with [Snowmass] Ski Patrol and with ACES staff. Can you talk to me about what that experience was like?
Weiss: We all gathered at ACES in the morning, and I gave a briefing on how the count works. I described the methodology. It’s very important that they follow it. It’s pretty simple, but there is a set methodology for gathering this data. They’re tallying up their birds and doing their best to cover their area during the daylight hours.
At noon, all of the groups converge at Woody Creek Tavern for lunch. That is, I think, a highlight of the day. Obviously, seeing the birds is the big highlight, but the social part is something we all look forward to. It’s really fun. We share our stories. What did we see? All sorts of fun stories from the field. It’s fun to compare. How birdie was it in your area? Oh, where did you find the five Dippers? Things like that.
Mertz: And how “birdie” was it out there?
Weiss: This winter is wacky. It is so warm and mild. It continues to be, so it’s really very different from any winter almost all of us can remember in our experience here.
The birds are doing different things, and there are patterns in their abundance. How hard or easy it is to find them is different.
We did a decent job with our species diversity. I think we had about 41 species overall on count day, which is decent, and we’ve approached 50, and even gotten over 50 in past years. Overall abundance of birds on our count day was on the lower side. We can only guess why that might be.
Mertz: What have you seen with Aspen’s own bird populations?
Weiss: I guess, as far as birds go, we can probably safely say we’ve seen things declining in abundance. A lot of native species are visibly declining. Then we’ve seen increases in certain birds, some non-native ones and some native ones that are generalists, like American Crow, Black Billed Magpie, House Sparrow. These birds thrive in the human-altered environment, and we’ve seen their populations really grow.
Mertz: How do the results inspire the work that ACES does, or how you curate your birding programs at ACES?
Weiss: Good question. The Christmas Bird Count is a very important part of ACES’ offerings because it is true citizen science. It’s a way that the public can get involved in a hands-on way with actual science and feel like they’re involved and they’re contributing. You can show up with no experience looking at birds whatsoever, and we’ll fold you in, give you a pair of binoculars to use, and set you up in a group to go on a route with experienced birders.
Mertz: Great. Thank you so much for coming in. I really appreciate it.
Support for this Nonprofit Spotlight series comes from the Aspen Community Foundation.
