Sean Cozart heard a tundra bean-goose was spotted in Baker County on Dec. 6, but he was taking finals at Brigham Young University-Idaho and unable to see the bird for himself.

The tundra bean-goose, according to Cornell University’s Birds of the World website, nests in arctic tundra regions across Scandinavia and Siberia. Cozart said it won’t be found in most North American bird guides.

“To have one show up in the U.S. is quite exceptionally rare,” he said.

After that Dec. 6 sighting, he said others failed to find the goose again and assumed it had left the valley.

But Cozart, who started birdwatching around age 10, held out hope.

“Birds don’t just show up and leave in the middle of winter,” he said.

Cozart has coordinated the Christmas Bird Count in Baker County for three years. The count, organized by The National Audubon Society, is held between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. Volunteers choose one day — Dec. 28 this year around Baker City — and are assigned zones within a certain area to count all the birds they can identify.

This year, for the 67th local count, he had 18 volunteers, although more showed up as news spread about the rare sighting.

“We had people from La Grande, Boise and Portland coming to see this bird,” he said.

Cozart was on a mission to find the goose.

“I looked at every flock of Canada geese I could find,” he said.

The Dec. 6 sighting was at Lake Bob, just north of Baker City on the west side of Interstate 84.

Cozart, with a spotting scope, found a flock of 600 Canada geese on Highway 30 near Chandler Cutoff Lane.

“Halfway through I saw a bird about a third of the size,” he said.

Upon closer inspection, he saw the bird had bright orange legs and an orange stripe on its bill — identifying marks of the tundra bean-goose.

He quickly told other birdwatchers of his find.

“They all ditched their routes to come see this bird,” he said. “Everyone was so ecstatic.”

Other unique birds spotted during the count include a greater yellowlegs, a peregrine falcon, 200 snow geese and a Ross’s goose.

Christmas Bird Count
According to the Audubon Society, the Christmas Bird Count started in 1900  when ornithologist Frank M. Chapman proposed a new holiday tradition — a “Christmas Bird Census” that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.

Now, thousands of volunteers participate in a local bird count to compile data that helps track bird populations.

According to the Audubon website, data collected helps “Audubon researchers, conservation biologists, wildlife agencies and other interested individuals to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America.” The data also “informs strategies to protect birds and their habitat, and helps identify environmental issues with implications for people as well.”