The numbers have been crunched, the results distributed, and the book closed on the 2018 Christmas Bird Count in much of Snohomish County.

Numbers aside (125 species, 35,328 birds), this count was a testament to a record turnout of 126 participants, 62 at home or in their neighborhood and 67 in the field, despite up to gale-force winds and heavy rain.

“The wind kept many small birds hunkered down, and wave action made it harder to see divers between rollers. Our kayak team had to cancel, and even the indefatigable Duane Karna and his boat were affected,” wrote Pilchuck Audubon Society’s Scott Atkinson in his report. “He managed to get (birders) to Jetty Island and back, but little more could be done, wind gusting to 45 mph.

“Species counts were down in 13 of 17 territories; some were down by more than half. For individual birds, eight species had record-low individuals’ counts in the 1995-2018 period of our current CBC count area,” Atkinson continued.

Despite the conditions, walking birders put in a record 121.6 miles; feeder/private property hours went from 76.5 in the 2018 survey to 111.75, and found a few record-setting individual counts.

Birds usually found in other CBCs but were unseen for this one included the Western grebe, marbled murrelet, spotted sandpiper, red crossbill, pigeon guillemot and swamp sparrow. Only two common loons were counted.

But a few rarities were spotted, including a gray-morph gyrfalcon, the first since the 2006 CBC.

“A count of 450 cackling geese shattered our all-time combined CBC record-high count of 367. Common as a fall migrant in October, there seems to be a regional trend of increasing numbers on the CBCs nearby … The highlight was a mind-numbing 200 bushtits, nearly all in a single flock (and) an integral part of a record-high 515 total for the whole CBC, fitting a regional trend toward increase,” Atkinson reported.

The only species other than the cackling goose to set a record CBC high was the long-billed dowitcher – 145.

Other notable sightings included orange-crowned warblers, Hutton’s vireo, band-tailed pigeons, chestnut-backed chickadees, ruby-crowned kinglets, greater yellowlegs, Townsend’s warblers, red-breasted sapsuckers, Anna’s hummingbird, wood duck, sora, brown creeper, Pacific wren, black-bellied plovers and California quail.

Let’s lift one to the citizen-scientist birders who understand the importance of the nationwide CBC counts for data collection and interpretation of bird populations and trends, and believe it was worth their efforts in difficult weather for them, and the birds.

Shut down off, snowshoes on. Quick, take advantage of the Glacier snowshoe program of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The two-to-three-hour Sunday walks with a ranger are Feb. 10, 24 and March 3 and 10. There’s also an outing on Feb. 15.

Meet at the Glacier Public Service Center, milepost 34, Highway 542. Maximum group size is 15; suggested donation is $15 for adults, $10 for youth 16 and younger. Snowshoes and poles are provided. Reservations are required.

To register, go to www.discovernw.org and search for snowshoe program. There will be information on walks at Glacier, Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie Pass. If there’s another federal government shutdown after the Feb. 15 trip, the outings will be cancelled.

For more information or to cancel or make changes to an existing reservation, contact Magenta Widner at mwidner@fs.fed.us or call 360-599-9572. She suggests that it’s best to use Google or Firefox because older versions of Internet Explorer do not work with the registration site.

Rethinking beaks. A new study published in the journal Evolution suggests that the beaks of birds are not as adapted to the type of food that they feed on as is generally believed. Researchers found a relationship between the type of bill and food, but that many species with similarly shaped beaks forage in different ways and with entirely different kinds of foods.

Researchers said that makes sense because birds use their beaks for everything.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or songandword@rockisland.com.