A group gathered at Rice Rivers Center in the pre-dawn hours on a cold December morning.  They settled in right beyond the entrance gate, and began softly calling for a barred owl they saw the night before.  Barred owls are non-migratory and usually stay in the same area for the most of their lives, and their hope was to call one in close enough to observe. Suddenly, a dark figure emerged as the sun began to rise and settled on a branch, watching the group as they, in turn, watched him. 

So began the center’s participation in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count.

The bird count is a national community science bird project that runs each December 14 – January 5. The Hopewell region designation – in which Rice Rivers Center is located – has participated for 86 years, and each December 15 a group of volunteers are organized and spread out throughout the area. Area leader Ellison Orcutt determines the area to be covered. The goal is to record every bird heard or seen in an assigned area throughout the day.  For the second year in a row, Alyssa Spasic led the group.

Spasic is no stranger to Rice Rivers Center.  She graduated from VCU in December 2023 with a B.S. in Biology, and first became acquainted with the center during an avian ecology internship with Drs. Cathy Viverette of Rice Rivers Center and Lesley Bulluck of the Center for Environmental Studies. “I have always had an interest in birds, and originally wanted to be a vet,” says Spasic. “I was speaking to my cousin who took one of Dr. Bulluck’s ornithology classes and decided to become involved in the research. My first task was to measure Prothonotary Warbler feather's reflectance to assess annual variation in ornamentation.”

She continued to work with Dr. Bulluck as a research affiliate in her avian ecology lab, which allowed her to experience field work, learn about long-term datasets and eventually submit a scientific manuscript and attend conferences.

Knowledge of the center and birding made her a perfect choice to lead the group of four volunteers. Her role was to collect the information gathered, which also included how much a volunteer traveled by car or by foot, and how much time was spent birding. 

Events like the Christmas Bird Count is a way to bring interested parties together from all experience levels to learn more about the birds in their communities. For Spasic, the bird count is another way to connect with the avian community as she considers her next educational step towards a master’s program.   

December 15, 2024 Rice Rivers Center Christmas Bird Count results

Owling
Start: 6:40 a.m.
End: 7:06 a.m.
Total Time: 26 minutes
Distance Travelled: 0.81 mi (car)

Daytime Birding
Start: 7:07 a.m.
End: 11:55 a.m.
Total Time: 288 minutes
Distance Travelled: 0.32 miles (car); 4.11 miles (foot)

238 Canada Goose
498 Ring-billed Gull -- Abundant flyover
1 Double-crested Cormorant
1 Great Blue Heron
1 Turkey Vulture
3 Bald Eagle
1 Barred Owl
6 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
12 Red-headed Woodpecker -- Abundant & very active
4 Red-bellied Woodpecker
3 Downy Woodpecker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Pileated Woodpecker
3 Northern Flicker
1 Eastern Phoebe
9 Blue Jay
2 American Crow
18 Carolina Chickadee
8 Tufted Titmouse
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
7 Golden-crowned Kinglet
4 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Brown Creeper
1 Winter Wren
12 Carolina Wren
2 European Starling
3 Hermit Thrush
15 American Robin
11 American Goldfinch
24 Dark-eyed Junco
34 White-throated Sparrow
3 Song Sparrow
1 Eastern Towhee
190 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Pine Warbler
9 Yellow-rumped Warbler
7 Northern Cardinal