Sue Morton searched for woodpeckers and other bird species in Camden State Park on Sunday morning, as part of the annual Christmas Bird Count. Volunteer birders spread out over an area that stretching from Marshall south to Garvin Park.

It was a quiet morning as Sue Morton walked along a trail near the north end of Camden State Park. Maybe a little too quiet.

“There should be woodpeckers out here,” Morton said. She scanned the trees, looking through a pair of binoculars, and stopped to listen for bird calls and other sounds. She eventually spotted three different kinds of woodpeckers on her hike, as well as birds like chickadees, cardinals and juncos. But there weren’t as many birds there as in past winters.

“It’s such an odd year,” Morton said.

Area residents who took part in this year’s Christmas Bird Count in and around Marshall said they had similar experiences. They could find a good range of bird species, but not in big numbers. There were also some birds they had never seen in Lyon County before.

The Christmas Bird Count is a citizen science event that was started by the Audubon Society in 1900. Volunteers across the U.S. organize to count the number and type of birds they see or hear during a day, in a specific geographic area. A Marshall area count has been conducted since 1970. On Sunday, a total of five volunteers covered an area that included the city of Marshall, as well as Lynd, Russell, Camden State Park, Amiret and Garvin Park.

Volunteers spread out to look for birds in different habitats, from open country to marshes and woods, and even at backyard bird feeders. When volunteers met back up for lunch, they compared notes on what they had seen. After the count day was over, volunteer Nolan Meyer would compile the results.

The group thought they would find about 35 to 40 different species of birds in this year’s count. But some were proving elusive this year. Paul Egeland said he hadn’t managed to find any flickers. “Did anybody get a flicker?” he asked the group.

“I did, at Wayside Rest,” said Roger Schroeder.

Meyer said he was having a hard time finding bird species that would normally be common along roadsides and in farm fields.

“It’s harder to find birds by the road,” he said.

One bird that Dalton Spencer spotted – a Eurasian tree sparrow – was a new sighting for the Marshall count area.

Volunteers said changes in climate, or the unusually dry year southwest Minnesota has had, could have affected where birds migrated this winter.

“The weather makes a lot of difference,” Egeland said.

It’s not certain how climate change will impact area bird populations in the future, volunteers said. “I foresee the count will be steady, but we’ll see different birds,” Morton said.