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Birding Brevard: Christmas Counts, Your Path to Holiday Joy

By Dave Freeland

A month from now, most Brevard birders will be participating in one or more Christmas Bird Counts, helping Audubon’s "Citizen Science" initiative and having a heck of a good time as well. Christmas Counts are one of my favorite birding activities. A few weeks after my family moved here from New Jersey in 2003, I looked up the compiler of the Cocoa CBC – Dick Novier at the time – and contacted him with a "new birder in town" plea: What team could I join for the Cocoa Count? I lucked out and got Roy Book’s party that covers Rockledge. Roy himself is a compiler (South Brevard Count), and Dee Simpson and I have since taken over for Dick and Nedra Sekera as co-compilers of the Cocoa CBC.

A typical Christmas Count team is out birding all day in an assigned area within the count’s 15-mile-diameter circle. There are a dozen or more other teams doing the same thing, so the count circle gets very good coverage on the chosen date for the count. Some good birds are seen, a lot of ordinary ones and occasionally a true rarity. They all count, equally, however, in amassing a list for the day.

The Cocoa CBC, now about to enjoy its 58th anniversary, having been started by famed birder and conservationist Allan Cruickshank in 1951, has recorded 308 identifiable (and countable) species during its 57 years of existence. Pacific Loon and House Finch are the two most recent additions, and there have been many additional exotics seen, recorded on the list but not true, wild birds (Common Peafowl, Budgerigar, etc.). The Merritt Island CBC, compiled by Ned Steel and Jim Petersen, enjoys special access on count day to Kennedy Space Center property within its prescribed 15-mile circle. Several teams join KSC personnel to tour the property and count the birds there. The South Brevard CBC is half in Brevard County and half in Indian River County. All parts of that circle, including the Indian River Lagoon itself, are covered on count day.

Count dates this year are Monday, December 15, for Merritt Island; Saturday, December 20, for Cocoa; and Saturday, January 3, for South Brevard. If your schedule permits and your desire to go birding with a talented team of companions sounds like fun, contact one of the compilers and ask to be included. Contact Ned Steel (nedsteel@msn.com) for the Merritt Island CBC, myself (freela148@aol.com) or Dee Simpson (deefairbanks@yahoo.com) for the Cocoa CBC or Roy Book (rlbook@earthlink.net) for the South Brevard CBC. You’ll be glad you did.

Where to Go: Keep a weather eye out for strong east or northeast winds these days. When the weatherman says it’s right, head for Playalinda Beach, Cocoa Beach or Sebastian Inlet and scan with a telescope for sea ducks, jaegers and other migrating birds of the Atlantic Ocean shore.

Bird of the Month: It’s a little out of our area, but the honor must go to the Least Grebes (yes, that’s plural) that found their way from the Bahamas or Caribbean islands to Boca Raton and actually nested there. The species is rarely seen in Florida, though it’s not unusual in southern Texas. That both a male and a female found their ways to the same place and decided to raise a family is mind-boggling.