HORIZON MAGAZINE SPRING 2020
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS SAFEGUARD AVIAN DIVERSITY WORDS & PHOTOS ART
LOGAN WAGNER LAURIAN QUEZADA
OPPOSITE: A spotted towhee awaits a response to his morning song perched atop a pollen-loaded Utah juniper.
inhabit campus grounds. It goes going to see birds. I'm going to without mentioning the cacophony hear birds. I may not have my of diversity within the Colorado binoculars, but I'm going to River corridor. Grand Junction, know they're there. It's just sort despite its semi-arid high desert of another layer of awareness that status, still supports a wealth of you take with you as you become diversity, especially in birds. a birder,” Cary Atwood, chapter Decorating the water, land and leader of Grand Valley Audubon skies of the Western Slope are 349 Society (GVAS), said. unique avian species. Shy of that Since 1870, naturalists with total are 151 playable animated a knack for birds have joined characters that make up the structured counts alongside 450 Pokédex in the original Pokémon (and counting) Audubon Society game. Pokémon gameplay is chapters around the nation. These how birders feel outside. If you seasonal and annual counts paint have spent any time in tall grass, a picture of what kinds of birds are you’ll see a character. Sometimes present at any given time of year. they flee before you can identify GVAS held their 48th Christmas them and add them to your list. Bird Count in December 2019. It’s exciting to see new birds, and Out birding that day were 15 groups different habitats lead to different divided around the Grand Valley, species. Many birders feel driven and two groups were in rafts to “catch them all,” compiling a life floating the icy Colorado River. list of birds they have ever seen. In total, 107 different bird species “[I tune in] with my ears and my were counted among the groups. eyes, anytime I'm outside, because “I've been doing the Christmas I always feel like, baseline, I'm Bird Count now for probably five
BIRD NERD
look up. you miss a lot when you don’t look up. You miss even more when you don’t listen to your surroundings. All too often we rush through our days with our heads down, and the natural world passes through our fingertips. If you listen closely on campus, you can hear the songs of house finches, shrill sounds of cedar waxwings and even the trumpeting of sandhill cranes passing overhead. Birds are some of the easiest critters to observe. They are ubiquitous. Horned larks, meadowlarks and mountain bluebirds litter the north desert. Ravens, robins and black-chinned hummingbirds
61
