El Nino surprises during Audubon Bird Count.

• Position: Your Life - Brief article

With the El Nino weather phenomenon warming Pacific waters to temperatures matching the highest ever recorded, participants in the 19th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb. 12-15, encountered a few surprises. Information gathered and reported help scientists track changes in bird distribution, some of which may be traced to El Nino storms and unusual weather patterns.

"The most recent big El Nino took place during the winter of 1997-98," says the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Marshall Miff, a leader of the eBird program, which collects worldwide bird counts year-round and also provides the backbone for GBBC. "GBBC was launched in February 1998 and was pretty small at first. This was the first time we had tens of thousands of people doing the count during a whopper El Nino."

"We've seen huge storms in western North America, plus an unusually mild winter in much of the Northeast," notes Gary Langham, chief scientist at the National Audubon Society. 'We're seeing birds showing up in unusual places, such as a Great Kiskadee in South Dakota, as well as unseasonal records like Orchard...