Natural History Journal

'Tis the season... for Christmas Bird Counts! But... What exactly is the much-celebrated Christmas Bird Count, and why does it matter?   Why spend a frigid winter day (or several days!) outdoors, peering through binoculars and spotting scopes while trying desperately to stay warm enough to retain the use of your extremities?   I'm glad you asked! A Christmas-y looking Western Bluebird on the La Grange/Waterford Christmas Bird Count The history of the Christmas Bird Count dates back to 1900, a time when it was more common to hunt birds rather than count them.  In the 19th and early 20th centuries, competitive "side hunts" took place on Christmas as teams of men armed with guns headed into the field to shoot as many birds as possible.  The side with the biggest pile of feathers at the end of the day won.  (Barbaric, no?) On Christmas Day in 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman of New York began a new tradition, one in which teams armed with binoculars rathe...

2021 has been the year of the sparrow for me, with several rarities turning up near home, a successful Harris's Sparrow chase , and the discovery of a couple breeding pairs of Grasshopper Sparrows (a Species of Special Concern in California) in one of my local birding patches.   Boring and brown and altogether uninteresting to nonbirders, I find sparrows, in all their vast array and subtle markings, just beautiful!  And most of them sing lovely songs as well!   Sparrows belong to the family Passerellidae, which also includes juncos and towhees.  Fifteen species of sparrows are relatively common in California's Great Central Valley and surrounding foothills, with various species likely to be encountered in different habitats and at different times of the year.   But I can promise you that on any birding outing, you will meet at least a few sparrows!   Now, it's time to meet them all - albeit briefly - in one place.   Like meet...