Barn Quilt

I'd gotten a call from neighbor Rose early in the week.  The Audubon Christmas Bird Count was coming up and the Churchtown area didn't have enough teams to cover their territory.  Would I be interested in helping out.  "Sure, why not?"  I didn't understand why it was being held in Churchtown but the instructions sent were very similar to the Great Backyard Bird Count held in February by Cornell & Audubon.  Difference here was  this one was only one day and I would be given a specific sector where I could observe.   We met before daybreak this morning at a restaurant in Churchtown.  The count coordinator had recruited a partner for me.  My assigned partner Dale was a retired conservation teacher and had done this count many times before.  His usual partner was ill so initially he had thought of not doing it this year.   There were eight of us - 4 teams of 2.  Each team was given a quarter section (several miles) of the whole area to cover.  Dale was knowledgeable and talkative (but not overly so).  I drove while he navigated and marked down the birds we saw.  If I'd been on my own I would have staked out certain areas that looked 'bird friendly' and walked around for 15 minutes at each.  I did suggest doing that but he said we should slowly drive every road in our district instead.  The temperature was 9 degrees w/ a vicious wind chill so I agreed his idea had a lot of merit.   Spent most of the time driving between 10 and 20 m/p/h or pulling over to let a car pass me.  The sign 'Audubon Christmas Bird Count' I'd posted in the back window probably kept me from getting honked at.   In truth I figured we would only see crows on a day like this.   Crows did end up w/ the highest count but we saw other birds too.  We came across a group of starlings on a residential lawn; cardinals, chickadees, and a hairy woodpecker down in a wash; Canadian geese along w/ some mallards on an open part of the river; a bunch of blue jays eating berries; a red-tailed hawk landing in a tree; a brilliant white flock of trumpeter swans fly past following the river; juncos cleaning up under someone's bird feeder;  mourning doves on the wing and others.   Dale had also worked in this area as the County Conservation Supervisor so he pointed out conservation wins and losses as we passed different spots.   The Bird Count coordinator said we could observe in our quadrant all day if we wanted but after three hours we had driven every road and it was beginning to get a bit boring.  (I like birding but I'm not that avid.)  Dale announced we were done (OK by me) and I dropped him back off at the restaurant where he'd left his car.  Dale said he would send in our results and 'cc' me so I could see the format.   Overall - a fun morning.