Eugene _ It's a birds eye view for the Audubon Society of Lane County who went on their 107-th annual Christmas bird counting trip. Local teams are hoping to help count winter birds as part of a national effort

"Oh look at that beautiful, gorgeous, just gorgeous," exclaims team leader Bruce NewHouse. He goes on to explain that: "This is the annual Audubon Society of North America Christmas bird count we're out here today with about 20 other teams from Eugene."

Volunteer Peg Boulay chimes in: "It's birding with a purpose"

"What we do , is every year come out with a team of people and try to tally not only every species of bird we see, but how many of each species we see. We're part of a larger effort across North America where over 56,000 people are doing similar counts," says NewHouse.

"When you do that over a long period of time you can get a general trend of some species are declining or increasing over time," explains Boulay.

"Two of the raptors, two of the hawks are birds that maybe 10 years ago you wouldn't see at all, and we're now expecting them regularly out here, one is a white tail kite," says NewHouse.

"Again 10 years ago, pretty rare up here to see a hawk, and this morning we've seen one or 2 red shoulder hawks. Now a days you'll expect to see red shoulder hawks when you come up here in the winter time. And they're even starting to breed out here now," says NewHouse.

"So in contrast to those two species that are expanding their range, becoming a little more common, we're also seeing some species that are declining like the meadow lark and it's important to track what they're doing," explains Boulay.

"Certainly over here where you see this subdivision of high density housing, there's a few species that are compatible with that. You know there are a few birds that can tolerate that, the birds that are more private more secretive need a larger habitats need more native habitats, need more open areas are the ones that suffer the most," says NewHouse.

Boulay adds that: "We are seeing more development in the last 10 years since we've been doing this and so some of the areas where we used to see birds we don't see them anymore."

Sunday's bird count totals won't be on the National Audubon's site for awhile. But you can still look at the numbers from around the state. Just click on news links and we'll connect you.