They Watch Birds Like a Hawk

Birds of many stripes are dipping and diving gracefully over Nancy Kenyon’s backyard in a splendid ballet on a sunny Monday afternoon, filling the air with sweet music and coming and going in dizzying bursts.

Kenyon, an ardent bird watcher who can identify a species by sight or sound, has been keeping close track of the feathered friends who regularly flock to her garden to munch on thistle seed, sunflower, or freeze-dried mealworms--a special treat.

Kenyon, of Irvine, is among thousands of hobbyists with varying degrees of expertise who participated in this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count, a joint national project of the Audubon Society and the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.

The count, in its fifth year, is not designed to be a perfect measure of migratory trends but rather is used to develop state and regional snapshots that help monitor bird populations and identify local phenomena or anomalies that signal the need for further study.

Volunteers are asked to log the bird traffic as it moves through their backyards and post their findings on the Internet, at www.birdsource.org. The Web site keeps a running tally of the results.

As of Monday, the fourth and final day of the count, more than 25,000 checklists had been turned in, showing that 2.7-million birds and 463 species had been counted across North America.

California trailed only New York in participation, with 1,769 bird watchers weighing in. The top five species observed in the state were the mourning dove, the house finch, Western scrub jay, Anna’s hummingbird and American robin.

Kenyon, 63, has been a serious bird watcher for 20 years. She is an Audubon member and a volunteer for the society’s Project Feeder Watch, another counting program that requires weekly reports of the birds that descend into her backyard.

Sitting outside with binoculars and a notebook, Kenyon hears the warble of the red-breasted house finch and the quicker chirp of the house sparrow before they land in her garden. An Anna’s hummingbird, a mockingbird, two mourning doves, white-crowned sparrows and American gold finches also will arrive before the hour passes.

Here, eight bird feeders stand amid a variety of native plants that create a sanctuary of sorts, protecting the feathered creatures from hawks and other natural foes.

In Laguna Woods, 72-year-old Ellen Lamb is coming up with a different count: So far today, she has counted, among other species, 30 cedar waxwings, 18 yellow-rumped warblers, seven crows, seven bushtits, two hummingbirds, two bluebirds and two starlings.

Both women say they first fell in love with bird-watching when they were little girls. Kenyon had a front-row seat from her breakfast table in Laguna Beach, where her dad built a feeder under the kitchen windowsill. Lamb, who grew up in Rochester, N.Y., recalls watching from her bedroom as brilliant warblers flew by and perched on the giant cherry tree outside her window.

Aside from their own enjoyment, Kenyon and Lamb feel as if they are helping an important cause.

“It’s fun to watch birds,” Kenyon said. “But I’m not interested in just getting people to look at birds. I think that if you have a greater appreciation for birds, you will have a greater appreciation for nature, and you’ll be more concerned about saving habitats.”