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Community Corner

Birders Brave Winds to Count Birds for Audubon

Earthplace Volunteers scour windswept shorelines for the Audubon Society's annual bird count.

At 10 degrees below zero with 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts, January 3 was a Westport beach day — for the resident shore birds, that is, and only the most dedicated of birders who participated in the Audubon Society's 109th annual bird count in North America.

Crews of intrepid birders braved the elements to record sightings of blackback gulls, song sparrows, mute swans, red-throated loons, long-tailed ducks, surf scoters, horned larks, northern flickers, white-horned owls, red-headed mergansers and dozens of other winged creatures inhabiting the frosty shoreline.

The whipping winds were so fierce at deserted Sherwood Island State Park that bird lover Patrick Dugan refrained from using any of the 100 bird calls he knows to summon birds out of their makeshift shelters in the dried grasses of the salt marshes.

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Had Dugan displayed his talents mimicking bird calls, it would have undoubtedly increased the number count, but, to him, the effect on birds hovering in the shivering weather was unthinkable.

"Too cold!" he remarked as he scoured the snow-covered sand dunes for signs of aviary activity. "We need to put as little stress on them as possible so they conserve their energy."

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Dugan — outfitted in nylon winter gear, binoculars and a powerful tripod-mounted scope that enabled him to spot and identify wading birds and ducks dozens of yards offshore — was participating in his 21st annual bird count for Audubon. The Audubon Society uses the information submitted by tens of thousands of birders across the country to assemble a data base and use the information to analyze migratory patterns and trends or changes in bird activity.

Following last year's census, Audubon announced findings of northerly bird movement, revealing a global warming "threat in action."

"Birds are showing us how the heavy hand of humanity is tipping the balance of nature and causing ecological disruption in ways we are just beginning to predict and comprehend," according to the 2009 Audubon report.

Volunteer Tina Green of Westport led a crew of four, including Dugan and Sara Zagorski of Wethersfield and Wendy Knothe of Newtown, in a day-long assignment for Audubon covering western Westport. All are consumed with passion for the pasttime.

Green and Knothe go bird watching every day if possible. Zagorski recently returned from a three-week birding expedition to Antarctica. Dugan leads birding tours every Saturday from May to September at Cove Island in Stamford.

A big part of the thrill is the acccurate identification: the ability to instantly assess appearance, bird call, wing pattern and other characteristics and correctly identify a subject, according to the birders.

Sunday's winter bird count began at 7 a.m., when the group observed the reassuring presence of a Peregrine falcon at the I-95 overpass at Riverside Avenue. A pair of Peregrines has been observed nesting in that location for several years, Green said.

The day's travels would take them to Compo Beach, Mill Pond and locations inland.

At Sherwood Island, as they stood at fixed positions, six black ducks kept company offshore; Dugan called out with excitement with each siting: a female black duck (with a brown head), a common loon, a red-headed merganser.

Wandering along the windswept dunes and channel inlets, Green practiced her "pishing"sound mimicking a Carolina wren to rouse a bird or two for the count as a V-formation of 16 Canada geese flew overhead.

Dugan is an unassuming wizard at identifying birds, according to the birders. When he gives birding tours, he easily attracts all kinds of species by mimicking their calls. He's even been assaulted by male birds for his perceived threat.

He carries an Apple I-Touch programed with Audubon, National Geographic and I-Bird applications with pictures and descriptions of thousands of species of birds.

Dugan knows them all and happily shares the information with the uninitiated, even risking fingertip frostbite to do so.

Jim Hunter, who teaches biology and AP environmental science at Wilton High School and has volunteered for Earthplace since he was 7 years old, simultaneously led a crew covering eastern Westport.

All planned to assemble at 5 p.m. at Earthplace to present their counts and share in a potluck supper.

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