In the cold gray of morning, a northern harrier glided over the grassland and, in just seconds, swept past the bird counters.
It was Sunday, Day 1 of the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, an event 109 years old and central to modern efforts to assess both the size of and the peril facing bird populations.
The count, which runs through Jan. 5, draws tens of thousands of volunteers across the country each year.
At the California Audubon's 6,800-acre Bobcat Ranch north of Winters, there was plenty to assess.
The female harrier fly-by delighted Rodd Kelsey, an ecologist with Audubon California's Landowner Stewardship Program, and Vance Russell, director of the Winters-based program.
The ranch was purchased by Audubon California in July 2007 for $7 million. A large segment of the ranch is within the Putah Creek Christmas Bird Count organized by the Yolo Audubon Society.
Kelsey and Russell were one of three teams of volunteers counting birds at the ranch and many more counting in the Putah Creek area.
That afternoon, volunteers from parts of Yolo, Solano and Napa counties would meet for a potluck in Davis, where the Yolo Society would organize the count for coordinators at the National Audubon Society.
Similar counts were under way Sunday elsewhere in California, including Oakland and Stockton.
At Bobcat Ranch, where Audubon California has been restoring native habitat for birds and other wildlife, Kelsey identified the northern harrier as a "species of special concern," meaning that its numbers are in decline.
The early morning chill meant that some birds were subdued. Yet plenty made an appearance.
Before 10 a.m. Kelsey and Russell had detected 27 species across a section of the ranch, and Kelsey had meticulously recorded them in a small log book. Behind the names of each were Kelsey's multiple penstrokes, showing the precise numbers found.
Identified among the sightings and soundings were birds with evocative names such as the yellow-rumped warbler; white-breasted nuthatch; a small sparrow known as a dark-eyed junco; western bluebird; savannah sparrow, which breeds in grasslands of the Central United States and Canada; the acorn woodpecker and Say's phoebe.
A rock wren made its shelter at the base of a dead oak.
In winter, the ranch continues to be available for cattle grazing. And it is a resource for helping other ranchers to see how to conserve and restore wildlife habitat.
Bird counting is just one facet of that appreciation for habitat, Kelsey said.
"You are forced to listen and become much more aware of your surroundings," he said in an interview.
Russell viewed the count as another way to learn about birds that alternate between local environs and Canada or Central America.
"You don't have to be out on a 6,800-acre ranch," he said. "You can be out in downtown Sacramento and see a lot of cool birds."
Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 478-2641.
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