Counting Birds

SOUTH OF MISSION - Connie Madia silently peered toward a brush patch while her husband chatted with friends a few feet away.

"Look over there!" she exclaimed suddenly, before carefully creeping behind a wooden blind and pointing at a small, orange bird perched on a limb.

Her friend Glenn Forchione quickly followed, adding that he had just made an addition to his "life list" - meaning it was the first time he had ever spotted the species.

The bird - which Madia promptly identified as an Altamira oriole - dashed away just seconds later, and Madia quickly scribbled a check mark on a piece of paper she pulled from her hiking bag.

Like 44 other birders at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park on Saturday, Madia was helping to gather data for the National Audubon Society, a bird conservation organization, as part of its annual Christmas Bird Count event.

Thousands of bird enthusiasts have been gathering at various locations in and around the United States to document bird species spotted from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5 to help researchers assess the health of bird populations, according to Audubon's Web site.

Madia has been birding since she was a child, when her mother first took her pigeon-feeding, she said.

The retired nurse later introduced her husband to the hobby when they both volunteered to band, or tag, birds in Georgia. For years, the couple has been traveling across the country in their recreational vehicle, spotting different bird species along the way.

Saturday marked Madia's eighth year participating in the Christmas Bird Count.

"The first time you have a bird in your hand, you're hooked," she said.

Forchione has been spotting birds as a hobby for 20 years, watching them from the backyard of his Wisconsin home and leaving feed out to attract various species. But he has only been a "twitcher" - a committed bird-watcher who travels long distances to add to his life list - for four years.

"I like (birding) for personal enjoyment, for science, for art," he said. "It's fun to be out and it's good to study nature to understand it better.
And you can take beautiful photos (of the birds)."