THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 30, 1994 TAG: 9412300457
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEA ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 161 lines
An icy wind sliced across the seashore, spitting sand as dawn broke.
Paul Sykes pulled a black stocking cap below his ear lobes and adjusted his wool gloves. He crouched, pushed aside a wrist-thick vine of thorns and thrust his spotting scope into a dense thicket on this Outer Banks wildlife refuge.
Marsh grass, needle-sharp reeds and heavy underbrush formed a tangled canopy four feet overhead.
Cactus clung to his hiking boots. Poison ivy wrapped around his thighs. These were picked up when the gray-haired vacationer trudged a quarter-mile through the woody wilderness to an inland pond.
There, on the silvery, mirrored pool, hundreds of waterfowl preened in the glittering early light. Pintail, mallard and northern shoveler ducks dipped their heads below the surface, searching for breakfast.
A dozen snowy tundra swans stretched elegant necks skyward. Twenty white ibis - each morethan two feet tall - stepped gingerly through the muddy marsh. A pair of tiny sand pipers sat near the shore.
This is what Sykes had come to see.
``There are more than 200 species of birds on the Outer Banks - far more than any other area around here,'' Sykes said Thursday, turning his binoculars toward a hooded merganser duck soaring overhead. ``Most of the ones on this pond are regulars around here. But that's what I like, anyway. Unusual species are just icing on the cake.''
A regional compiler for the Audubon Society's Annual Christmas Bird Count, Sykes drove from Athens, Ga., to eastern Virginia this week to conduct his 41st annual tally.
He and a group of volunteers began their work Wednesday at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. On Thursday, about 30 people joined Sykes before sunrise at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, just south of Nags Head on the Outer Banks.
Today, a separate group will record bird numbers on Hatteras Island. On New Year's Eve, another set of birders will traipse through Virginia's Seashore State Park and Eastern Shore islands, continuing the coast-to-coast count.
``The bird count was begun in 1900 as an alternative to Christmas Day hunts,'' Sykes said.
``It's gotten so big since then that we had to spread it over about two and a half weeks before and after Christmas. Everyone who participates is a volunteer. Most of us came from out of town. It's like an annual migration for us, too, an annual reunion.''
With more than 2,000 individually organized bird tallies and more than 40,000 volunteers, every state in the country participates in the Audubon Society's Christmas count.
South American nations, Canadian provinces and islands throughout the Caribbean also do holiday tallies. The results are published in a summer edition of American Birds, a bimonthly magazine of the National Audubon Society.
``This is not a scientific endeavor by any means,'' Sykes said. ``It's a general count and estimate of every species we can identify by sight or sound. It gives us an idea of what species are where, and it helps us group the birds in various regions of the country.
``Basically, it's so we can continue to monitor trends in migrating bird populations.''
Armed with clipboards, binoculars, and dog-eared paperback field guides, the anxious group of birders flocked out over the Outer Banks on Thursday. Most worked in pairs or threesomes, with one recording data and the others watching. They covered a 15-mile diameter area on foot, including Roanoke, Bodie and Pea islands.
Sykes, who organized the first Outer Banks Christmas count 30 years ago, is a wildlife research biologist with the National Biological Survey. Other volunteers included a math professor from New York, homemakers from Virginia, and graduate students who had driven through the night from Raleigh.
``I came because I enjoy getting out with other birders, being outside, communing with nature,'' said Susan Barrell, a North Carolina State graduate student who is studying zoology.
``I bird on my own at least twice a week. I've know about these Christmas counts ever since I became interested in birds. This is the second one I've done so far. Most volunteers try to put in as much time on this each year as they can.''
Sykes puts in a week or more on the count, most years.
``I just enjoy seeing the different species of birds, watching their behavior, observing them in different habitats and locations,'' he said. ``It's something you can do everywhere you go.
``It adds a whole new dimension to places you visit. It can be as private or as social an occasion as you want. They're easy to see compared to other animals. You can attract them to your yard or call them. You can get addicted to bird-watching, I tell you.''
Birders provide their own transportation, lodging, food and supplies on the annual Christmas count. They pay $5 each for the privilege of participating. Some bring along expensive spotting scopes, mounted on tripods, or high-tech, high-resolution binoculars.
Count-organizers provide the paperwork. Each group gets a two-page, two column set of bird types, grouped genetically. More than 180 species are listed. A separate place, at the bottom of the page, has room for ``Additional Species.'' Those draw the most ``ooohs'' at the evening dinner compilation, Sykes said.
``There are not a lot of breeding land birds on the Outer Banks. But this is one of the best birding areas in the East because of the ocean and sounds,'' Sykes said. ``Practically everything migrates over these barrier islands.''
Volunteers count birds from sunrise to sunset. When huge flocks fly overhead, watchers admit they often have to guess at the numbers. And if the same bird happens to get tallied twice, well, there probably are dozens of others that are never seen. There's not much birders can do about that. They just try their best.
``Almost everybody here's an amateur. We're all still learning,'' Sykes said. ``Duplication is inevitable. There's no way of getting around it. All we can do is keep counting.''
Sykes and two U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service volunteers circled the south pond on Pea Island during their Thursday count. They stayed on a sandy four-wheel drive path for the early part of the hike. But then turned into the underbrush, trudging toward the water.
While walking, Sykes periodically made ``pssst pssst pssst'' noises over his shoulder, as if trying to get someone's attention to tell them a secret.
Several times, the trick worked. Birds answered with a symphony of songs.
On other occasions, Sykes whistled a warbling refrain. ``It's the screech owl call,'' he explained. ``Most small birds in the East will get startled, or curious, and respond to that.''
Throughout the day, Sykes and his helpers saw herring gulls and red-throated loons. They spotted gannets in the grass and yellow-rumped warblers in the reeds.
. A flock of brown pelicans flew overhead. Common yellow throats, less than five inches long, cried ``witchy witchy'' from the underbrush. A tri-colored heron - standing almost three feet - spread its rust and black wings for a magnificent takeoff.
``Waterfowl here are low. But they've come back a lot in recent years,'' Sykes said.
``Pheasants used to be real common here. But they're mostly gone now. Hunters, a lot of ferral cats, other factors contributed to that. Development really hasn't affected this area at all because it's a protected wildlife refuge. Our counts really don't change a lot on the Outer Banks.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LANE DEGREGORY/Staff
Paul Sykes, who organized the first Outer Banks Christmas count 30
years ago, is a wildlife research biologist with the National
Biological Survey. On Thursday, about 30 people joined Sykes before
sunrise at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Graphic
BIRD COUNT ON THE NORTHERN OUTER BANKS
On Thursday, about 30 volunteers helped coordinator Paul Sykes count
birds on the northern Outer Banks. The tally was part of the annual
Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count that has been taking place
across the country since 1900. Another group will count birds on
Hatteras Island today from sunrise until sunset.
On Pea, Bodie and Roanoke islands, bird watchers recorded 150
separate species - down three from last year. Northern pintail ducks
and double-crested cormorant were the most prevalent. Watchers also
saw two species of humming birds over the marshy barrier islands.
The most unusual finds of the day were a Northern Shrike and a Great
White Heron. Only three other Northern Shrike have ever been spotted
in North Carolina, Sykes said. The mockingbird-sized Shrike usually
does not fly this far south. Great White Heron are cousins of Great
Blue Herons. But the white variety generally lives in Florida and is
seldom seen this far north. ``This may be the first time a Northern
Shrike and Great White Heron were spotted together,'' Sykes said.
``It was a very exciting day.''
by CNB