Feb 10, 2016 4 min read

It was another “count day” last weekend for members of the Ralph K. Bell Club as they spent time in mid-winter to tally raptors.

“I got fliers, but I think they’re crows,” Jan Churney shouted from the backseat as fellow birder Marge Howard stopped the car and brought her own binoculars up during the most recent count.

Club members and friends who are along to learn stay busy throughout the seasons counting and documenting birds that inhabit or migrate through this corner of the planet for the Audubon Society and other research centers. Each count yields valuable data that helps science calculate the health of the environment by the numbers of birds to be found at certain times of the year.

Howard and Churney went driving Saturday to finish up the last section of Greene County that hadn’t been checked. They were covering 69 miles in the southeastern corner of the county, from Waynesburg to Kirby, Mt. Morris, crossing Big and Little Shannon creeks.

They then crossed ridges where pairs of red tail hawks could be seen, circling lazily in a blue sky, a sign that the mating season is about to begin. Kestrels, a smaller predator with a golden breast and distinguished dark “Elvis” sideburns on males, were found sitting on telephone lines watching the fields below for mice that might venture out on a sunny February afternoon. Good binoculars brought them into focus and the identified birds were added to the list.

“I like checking right of ways,” Howard said, pointing to the clearings stretching from lower pastures to ridge tops.

The first kestrel of the day was spotted on Pitcock Run and three more were sighted before the count day ended. Howard pointed to a red roofed barn on the road below.

“We found a kestrel nest in there a few years ago,” she said. “They like old buildings where they won’t be disturbed.”

This annual raptor survey for Greg Grove of Genomics Core Facility at Penn State University extends beyond the Monongahela River into Fayette County. Once the numbers of hawks and other raptors have been added up, the data will be sent, Howard said. They’ve been counting for him since 2002.

Although red tail hawks are the most common, there also are red shouldered, rough legged, sharp shinned and Cooper’s hawks to be seen, along with eagles, kestrels and northern harriers. Grove’s count runs between mid-January and mid-February, close to the time when returning waterfowl, especially ducks begin to be seen on secluded waterways.

“This year we think they may be migrating early, so we’ve been keeping an eye out for them,” Howard said.

Sure enough, on that last count day, a flock of mallards, including two drakes was spotted on a pond on Ulery Road.

Helping a new generation of bird lovers learn to fledge is the goal of the club’s annual $1,000 scholarship, open to residents of Greene County who are graduating high school in 2016 or are enrolled as a freshman or sophomore in college with a 3.0 grade-point average or higher. To enter, write a 500-word essay about what you know about the birds native to Greene County. Essays must be received by March 31.

Audubon’s next national event is the Great Backyard Bird Count from Friday until Tuesday. The public is invited to count birds in neighborhoods and at their bird feeders and file data at gbbc.birdcount.org.

New reporters can create a GBBC account and tally birds by species and numbers for at least 15 minutes on one or more of the four-day project. Submit a separate checklist for each day in each location, or for the same location if the counts were made at different times. Results are filed by clicking “Submit Observations” on the GBBC homepage and computers are available for public use at Bowlby and Flenniken libraries.

Anyone interested in the Ralph K. Bell Scholarship can contact the club by email at rkbbirdclub@yahoo.com.