Standing on the dike along the Dungeness River, I watched quietly as a black-capped chickadee flew identical loops 20 feet away from me. First it plucked a seed-like piece from a clump on a tree. Flying a foot or so to a branch, it set down the morsel then swallowed it.

Chickadees typically feed this way while taking sunflower seeds from a bird feeder — pecking them open, then eating them, at the rate of one to two seeds per minute.

This chickadee, however, was fetching a new morsel every 4 to 5 seconds, a fren-zied round-trip pace I never had witnessed before.

This priceless moment happened while I was scouting my territory the day before the Sequim-Dungeness Christmas Bird Count. That night the wind started howling, and I knew that small birds would be hard to find during the count.

Our first highlight on CBC day (Monday, Dec. 20) was spotting more than a dozen ring-necked ducks on Kirner Pond.

These ducks aren’t common around Sequim and the ones I had found while scouting the previous day were the first ring-necks I have ever seen on this pond. Fortunately mild weather had left our local ponds ice-free on CBC day for the first time in several years.

Trumpeter swans were visible in a field near the creamery on Towne Road. Their numbers grew each time we passed this field during the day.

With small birds hunkered down to avoid the strong winds, fliers were mostly a few species of larger birds. Only gulls seemed to enjoy being wafted about by air currents. Ravens, crows and eagles were focused on flying directly toward their intended destinations.

Our best highlight of the day was a Cooper’s hawk, hovering over a single spot about 30 feet off the ground. This hunting practice is used by several raptor species, including our local northern harriers.

I had never seen a Cooper’s hawk hovering before, but this bird was able to do so by flying directly into the strong wind.

On Sunday, Jan. 2, my wife, Julie, and I returned to the field with different teammates for the CBC in and around Port Angeles.

The good news was that the day was sunny and windless.

The bad news was continuing cold, leaving us with iced-over ponds in our count territory east of Morse Creek.

On the Strait of Juan de Fuca, most birds were feeding singly, bobbing in and out of sight of my spotting scope, as waves rolled under them.

Small flocks of red-necked and horned grebes were a treat — each species avoiding any intermingling with the other species — unlike small birds that gather in mixed-species flocks this time of year. Not a single western grebe was to be seen, however, another indicator of the ongoing decline of this species locally.

A pair of beautiful long-tailed ducks was my favorite sighting of the day.

Mid-day, 200-plus American wigeons fed in a field near us. Suddenly they all took flight — spooked not by the usual bald eagle in flight but by an incoming female ring-necked pheasant. After landing she strutted past us in brilliant sunlight, giving us great looks.

Gray jays were busy in the trees near the snow line on Deer Park Road — the snow line being a prime target area to find them, based on my prior experience on this CBC.

We returned to the shore of the strait late in the day, with the tide well out from its position in the morning.

At least 15 killdeer were feeding among the wet rocks near us — a behavior aptly fitting their categorization as a shorebird. Normally they feed in fields and nest well away from shores.

Julie and a teammate had the most unusual sighting of anyone participating in the P.A. CBC. They found a hybrid warbler, half Townsend’s and half hermit. This is so rare for a local CBC that they have been requested to write up their sighting.

Total species found on the CBC days were 135 for S-D and 121 (preliminary) for P.A. The latter total is commendable, as P.A. had far fewer counters in the field than S-D, and it lacks the unique territories of Graysmarsh and Protection Island.

S-D’s count of 135 was low due to the winds, as our total is usually in the 140s. We set the state record of 150 in 2007.

Grays Harbor usually challenges us for the highest CBC total in the state. They, too, were battered by wind during their CBC, reportedly finding only 132 species. So S-D may yet be tops in the state this winter. Not that we’re competitive.

Dave Jackson teaches Beginning Birds and Birding — a six-week, Tuesday evening class series that starts in early March and in May. Register at the Dungeness River Audubon Center on Hendrickson Road (681-4076).