Unalaska, AK – Results from the local 2009 Christmas Bird Count are in. Local bird watchers saw about 7,270 individual birds from 51 different species. Included in the count were 1,368 Emperor Geese, 125 Steller Eiders, 505 bald eagles, and 2 Eurasian Wigeons.

"It's kind of citizen science at its best," said Suzi Golodoff, who helped coordinate the count. "It's just a heck of a lot of fun to do every winter but it's also very vital data."

The Christmas Bird Count is organized by the Audubon Society and includes over 50,000 bird counters from North and Central America. The 109-year-old event started in reaction to a 19th century Christmas bird hunt, wherein hunters tried to shoot as many birds as they could. Counts have happened for 18 consecutive years in Unalaska.

Golodoff said the wealth of data helps monitor environmental change because bird populations tend to react first and indicate what is going on in the environment. The data can also show how major accidents affect the environment.

"When that happened with the Selendang our Christmas Bird Counts instantly became very critical information for the refuge because they could get an idea of winter bird populations and numbers in the area."

The data also shows a decline in the number of local Steller Eiders and steady number of Emperor Geese. Almost the entire population of emperor geese lives in Alaska and winters in the Aleutians. Their population dropped 20 years ago and has not fully recovered, but it is holding steady.

This year's local bird count took place on Dec. 27 and involved 19 birders going out in mild, calm weather.

"Initially, after the count, we thought that was a quite count cause we're used to being out there in all these wild conditions, and it gets to be like survival mode some years. So we all came back thinking we had a rather quite count but I think it was really good for birders and we ended up getting more species this year than we ever had."

The information was sent to the regional Audubon Society office and will be complied into a report to show the status of birds nationwide.