In the 1800s, tradition dictated that hunters celebrate Christmas with a "side hunt," in which they would divide themselves into two teams, venture into the woods and shoot every animal they could find.

At the turn of the century, however, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman proposed a new hunt that counted the hundreds of non-game birds people might encounter, rather than shooting them.

In its 116th year, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count now taking place in the region and throughout the country, has become one of the longest-running projects for tracking the status of bird populations in the Americas.

The count is conducted in 15-mile diameter circles on a specific day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5, with the New London count this year taking place on Saturday.

Even though about half of the circle is over Long Island Sound, the rest is divided up into 12 sections to look for birds from Rocky Neck State Park to Mason's Island and up into Montville.

"[We go] anywhere there is a natural area to look for birds," Bob Dewire said.

Dewire, a Pawcatuck resident, has led the New London-area effort almost as long as he has participated in it.

The self-proclaimed "go-to naturalist" learned his Connecticut birds from older bird enthusiasts as a kid and inherited the position in 1963 from the late Richard Goodwin, professor emeritus of botany at Connecticut College.

Some counts have started late or ended early, but in 52 years, Dewire has only postponed the count once due to a severe ice storm.

Last year, the group tallied 31,090 individual birds of 120 species.

Dewire said the record number of species in southeastern Connecticut is 126, so the 2014-2015 count was a good year.

The count goes from sunrise to sunset, though some go out before sunrise to track owl activity.

Each subgroup is led by an experienced birder who has participated in the count in that section before and knows which sites to visit.

Lisa Wahle of Clinton led a group of three to cover the coast from the Electric Boat facility in New London down to the Millstone Power Station in Waterford.

Waterbirds such as Canada geese, mallards and double-crested cormorants were common along the beaches that lined Pequot Avenue down to Ocean Beach and Waterford Beach Park, but birds common at backyard feeders were scarce even in residential areas.

Jeri Duefrene of Niantic joked that the feeder birds must all be at her birdfeeders, which had been busy all week, as she kept her car windows rolled down despite freezing temperatures to listen for calls.

Many birders in the New London count expected this year's Christmas Bird Count to have skewed results because of the unseasonably warm weather during Christmas week.

Dewire said while the count's results are "always a surprise," this year he did not know what to expect because birds that normally pass through on their migration have not yet arrived.

Similarly, ducks and songbirds normally limited by food and ice cover have a lot more area available to them, making it harder to find them.

After the groups reconvene and Dewire submits the final tally, Audubon and other organizations use the data to assess how bird populations change over time.

Geoff LeBaron, director of the Christmas Bird Count, said the count is valuable because it provides a winter snapshot of population sizes and species ranges.

In combination with other counts, such as the Breeding Bird Survey in June, researchers can get a year-round look at how local birds are doing.

Many of the same people conduct their counts in the same places on the same dates each year, making the Christmas Bird Count one of the most accurate long-term data sets for studying birds in North America.

LeBaron said the count has also become a holiday tradition for birders, and since the counts are held over a three-week span, they can participate in multiple counts in different areas and meet up with friends in other counts every year.

Dewire, Duefrene and Wahle have also participated in the Old Lyme/Old Saybrook count, scheduled Sunday this year — starting with an owling session in Westbrook at 5:30 a.m.

Audubon also sponsors the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, which was created in partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to collect backyard bird population data via the online checklist program eBird.

More than 100 countries participate in the February count, which takes place over Presidents' Day weekend.

a.hutchinson@theday.com

Twitter: @ahutch411