We wandered down the gravel trail and through the wet grass.
Sandhill cranes framed the waterways with raspberry berets and Eric noted their numbers in his worn write-in-the-rain Christmas Bird Count book.
The buffleheads flashed their white winter earmuffs and the sounds of cormorants cut the air above us. Northern shovelers and pintails weaved in and out and canvasbacks snuck into the mix with unassuming ease. One hundred and twenty swans decorated the lakes, images of grace and sounds of car horns. He graciously offered to pair with me for the bird count and I was honored to join him. I refer to him as our “solid oak.” He is steady, patient, dependable, humble and the guy just really knows his stuff. The birds are his language, and the habitat is his home. He is a manager, an educator, a fire fighter, and a biologist. Eric Anderson, the deputy project leader at the complex, was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Some birds have familiar faces, but many are new or use their habitat in much different ways. Since coming to the Pacific Northwest, my roughened birding skills have become woefully apparent to me. Now back in the field at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Complex, the Christmas Bird Count circled around in its annual pirouette, and I was there to take its hand. Years later, after moving around and spending some time out of the field in a regional position, my tools dulled, the species shifted and my ear waned. Ridgeway’s rails clapped from the reeds and cactus wrens raised a brow from deep within the cholla. Western grebes had shaded eyes like those of the Arizona cowboys. I learned all their names, tail flicks, wing bars, and cadences. Birds were my daily chorus, my companions, and my seasonal gauges. The Colorado River seemed to narrow and fade by the hour, but at sunrise, the birds were heavily at play. My first Christmas Bird Count was a few decades ago in the hot desert that separates Arizona and California at Imperial National Wildlife Refuge. That of the birding community and the birds are the pageant. The Christmas Bird Count is a holiday of a different family gathering. It was wet but not rainy and cold but not snowy. We started down our path to the tune of trumpets bugling and tundra swans whooping. By Juliette Fernandez, Project Leader, Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Complex
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