A mix of rain and sleet fell as David McNinch walked along a paved path bordering Dry Creek in southeast Reno, binoculars in hand.
His eyes, sheltered from the precipitation by a hat, scanned the brush along the creek, a sea of beige and gold peppered with brightly colored garbage — plastic bottles, buckets, packaging — caught in the grasses and branches. Behind the creek, a chain-link fence partitioned off a maze of light industrial buildings where security alarms squawked.
But McNinch wasn’t focused on the lack of scenery — he was looking for birds.
On a fence, he spotted a lesser goldfinch; downstream in the creek, mallard and gadwall ducks swam in lazy patterns. As McNinch continued walking, they took flight, and he quickly counted them as they flew into the distance.
McNinch was participating in the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count , the longest-running citizen science project in the world. Now in its 125th year, the count relies on a mix of professional and amateur birders to document birds during a finite period, painting a picture — sometimes hopeful, sometimes bleak — of evolving species trends and populations.