Northern Utah’s Annnual Christmas Bird Count

On a foggy day in Ogden, Utah, during one of the coldest Decembers on record, Mike Hearell trekked outside to count birds. It wasn’t going well. “It was like four degrees. I think we’d only seen about twelve species by lunch,” recalls Hearell. On a typical Christmas Bird Count in Ogden, they would normally see north of 50 species. At the rate they were going, Hearell thought they would be lucky if they broke 20. “Then, the sun came out,” says Hearell. “And it ended up being the biggest year that we had ever in our section.”

They closed out the day having spotted 72 different species of bird. At least four of the species became new additions to the Ogden Christmas Bird Count (CBC) list. “Meaning, that was the first time they were ever seen during the CBC,” he explains. 

Hearell first participated in the CBC in Ogden in 2010 and became the lead of the Ogden Valley CBC when it started up in 2022, but that extremely cold, record-setting CBC stands out. “That was probably my favorite year or most memorable year, I would say, just because of how quickly things can turn around in one day.” It was a Christmas Bird Count miracle. 

One partridge in a Pear Tree…

The Audubon Society dates the first Christmas Bird Count to the year 1900, but its roots go back much further than that. Before counting birds around Christmas, people were far more likely to shoot them as a part of a holiday tradition known as a “side hunt,” in which people would trek outside with their rifles on Christmas Day, take a position and see which “side” could fell the most fowl. Credit for changing the tradition to counting birds, rather than hunting them, goes to ornithologist Frank M. Chapman and a growing conservation movement. 

While the winter tradition evolved into a less lethal event, it still has a competitive element. “I’ll admit, I’m a hunter and I played sports my whole life. I’m a competitive person,” says Hearell, who tracks the birds he spots all year long on platforms like eBird.org. “eBird is what opened my eyes to the actual world of listing—a form of birding. I was seeing the top 100 in my county and these other people seeing more birds than me. That motivated me to get out.”

For the Christmas Bird Count, the rules of the “competition” are simple: count all of the birds both seen and heard within a designated circle with a 7.5-mile radius (15-mile diameter) over the entire day of the count, which must occur sometime between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. The winner, presumably the one who has the highest count or sees the most bird species, is awarded bragging rights. (Although, friends birding together could probably find a way to make the competition more interesting.)  

The CBC serves a greater purpose as well: providing valuable data to track area bird populations over a long period. “In the early years, it started out as just trying to bring attention to birds from a non-consumptive perspective,” says Hearell, “But the data is actually worth something, showing the trends over the years and the decades.”

The Neotropic Cormorant comes to his mind. “15 years ago, it was a review species for the state, and now it’s not even flagged as rare in most counties, as that bird has kind of worked its way further north every year with climate change,” he says. With more than a hundred years of data, it starts to paint a picture of how changing landscapes and climate affect wildlife
and the environment. 

Two Turtle Doves…

The Christmas Bird Count also serves as an excellent entry point into birding. As the lead of the Ogden Valley count, Hearell divides volunteers into groups and assigns each group a different parcel of the count circle, making sure there is a seasoned birder assigned to each section. “That way, it can be for somebody who’s a first-day-out birder up to the most experienced.” And, it is an opportunity for even the most experienced birder to involve others in something they’re passionate about. “Taking other people out to show them birds gives me a lot of satisfaction,” says Hearell, and counting with a seasoned birder can give a novice a leg-up on other newbies. 

Scrolling through the profiles and contributions of other users on eBird once motivated him as a then-brand-new birder. “I’m looking at their name on the computer screen, like, ‘I don’t even know who that name is. I’ve never met that person. But I guarantee you I can go out and find more birds than they can.” Then he started to notice one name in particular that kept recurring—“Taylor.” “We were kind of the same age and had a lot of the same interests,” says Hearell. They decided to meet in person and bird together. “And so I had somebody to help push me along and teach me and shorten the curve on my learning for field identification.”

Now, Hearell has traveled all over the world to look at birds…and he isn’t going it alone. “He’s the one I’ve gone around the world with looking at birds. He’s been there with me, or I’m there with him.” 

The love of birds and birding took them most recently to Lima, Peru. Hearell says, “Here are these things that I’ve enjoyed so much that have taken me to multiple places in the world that I probably wouldn’t have gone to had it not been for birds.” 

So, when it comes to participating in counts like the CBC, Hearell says, “I almost feel it’s my chance to give something back to the birds.” Whether it’s providing citizen science data through his contributions to eBird or participating in bird counts, he says, “I just feel like, that’s the very least I could do to pay back for the enjoyment I get from it.”  

The first Christmas Bird Count comes to Utah

The first recorded Christmas Bird Count (CBC) happened in 1900 on Christmas Day, with 27 birders taking part in the count in 25 different places throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 1903, Utah hosted its first CBC in Provo. Now, Annual Christmas Bird Counts are held all over Utah and are free to participate. Information on all of the counts is available at utahbirds.org and your local Audubon Society. The Wasatch Audubon runs the Ogden Valley, Bear River, Antelope Island, Ogden and Morgan Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). Find out more at wasatchaudubon.org.