It's been a relatively mild winter in Fairbanks so far; but the day of the Fairbanks Christmas Bird Count was one of the coldest of the year at -38F. It seems that the coldest day almost always falls on the appointed CBC weekend. It takes dedication or a certain level of hardiness- both I think- to drag oneself out of bed on such a cold dark morning; dress in enough layers that you start to, at least mentally, resemble Randy Parker from A Christmas Story; and trundle out into air so frigid that exposed skin feels plasticized and breathing is painful. That or the promise of a thermos full of delicious hot toddy-like beverage and some very good company during the survey hours.
I cannot claim that dedication and hardiness were my main motivators, since I believe it was the warming company and rum mixed with ginger, nutmeg, honey, and lemon juice that drew me out of my warm cabin for the 49th Fairbanks CBC. I joined Brook and River for a very slow car-based survey of all of the side roads on Goldhill Road. It was a chilly drive indeed; this is one of the colder spots in town, and we had our windows rolled down for most of the drive so as to better see and hear our feathered friends. We started the count out with a hairy woodpecker, quickly followed by a small group of pine grosbeaks. We saw ravens and redpolls, and forty-five minutes into the count our first black-capped chickadees (one of the most common birds in Fairbanks). We totaled five species in the Goldhill area, and the reception that followed count day revealed twenty-four (I believe) for the Fairbanks area overall. Bird numbers in general were slightly down this year; the birds, perhaps displaying more sense than the counters, were laying low this chilly day.
