Dr. Bill Eddleman peered across Red Mill Pond. “Aha, there’s a widgeon. Two widgeons — yay!”
American widgeons, mallards, shovelers and gadwalls were all ducks Eddleman and his birdwatching partner Steve Schell spotted at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge on Dec. 14 during the Christmas Bird Count.
Then there were the chickadees, winter wrens, flickers, turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks. Eddleman hoped to spot a limpkin, a Gulf Coast waterbird once rare in Missouri but whose presence is growing as they gobble up invasive snails.
Some birds counted seem to have no business in Missouri. Last year Eddleman spotted a Say’s phoebe — a Great Plains bird whom he theorized flew to the Ozarks to escape the winter drought out west.
“They have been seen a little more frequently in Missouri in winter… Usually every year we do pop up with an unusual bird,” he said.
Eddleman has participated in the Christmas Bird Count on and off since the 1970s and credits a lifelong love of birds with getting him involved.
“I’ve been interested in birds since I was a kid, and having done this for 50 years I’ve been able to see some trends that are occurring,” Eddleman said.
The former Southeast Missouri State University biology professor is now a coordinator at the Cape Girardeau Research Center for The State Historical Society of Missouri.
“It’s part of the fun stuff we do,” added Schell, southeast region natural history biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
This year around 15 birders met up in Mingo and Puxico for the count. Starting at sunrise, small groups traveled to predetermined areas and began birdwatching, feeding their findings through Cornell University’s eBirds app to the Audubon Society. Schell and Eddleman’s itinerary included Red Mill Pond and Company Farm within Mingo, then Puxico’s South Park and a couple of areas outside of town. At dusk, they hoped to count short-eared owls at a known roosting ground.
The data is standardized by time and location to give researchers a general idea of which birds are where and when.
“It’s kind of crude but it’s been used for large-scale trends for birds,” Eddleman noted.
The data shows which populations are up or down, at which point scientists can ask why. He explained weather is a common factor in bird movements — for example, in freezing conditions ducks often concentrate on open water, or move elsewhere. Thus the population will be high in some areas and nonexistent in others.
Broader shifts in climate also change what birders are seeing, Eddleman said.
“They (ducks) don’t have to go as far south… So we’re looking to see, over the next couple decades, more waterfowl in Missouri,” he said.
The Christmas Bird Count is a fun holiday tradition for bird lovers, according to Eddleman, but one with a real impact on conservation.
“If you read about climate change and its effects on birds, that data comes from Christmas Bird Counts,” he said.
“Birding has kind of an interesting community,” added Schell, describing some of his fellow birders as friends he only sees once a year. “At heart, we’re all a bunch of data nerds.”
The next segment of the Christmas Bird Count will be held in Poplar Bluff on Dec. 23 and cover rural and urban areas within city limits, the Black River corridor, parts of Mark Twain National Forest and lowland crop fields to the south. Those interested can contact Bruce Beck at 573-776-5303 or beckbugs42@gmail.com for more information or to volunteer. Birdwatcher will meet at 7 a.m. Saturday at Hardee’s, 101 South Westwood Blvd., in Poplar Bluff to finalize groups and coverage areas, and receive materials.
More information about the Audubon Society and the Christmas Bird Count, including past count summaries, is available at audubon.org.