AUGUSTA -- Two adult and two juvenile bald eagles caught Don Mairs' attention at Hatch Hill Landfill Saturday. They stood out among the flocks of herring gulls, great black-backed gulls, ringed bill gulls, starlings, crows and even a soaring raven or two.

The birds swooped and soared, circled and roosted, as a studded-wheel loader compacted trash, covering and uncovering possible food sources.

Mairs, of Belgrade, and three other birders skilled at distinguishing among the varying plumages of gulls stood watch at the landfill as part of the annual Christmas bird count, which took place all day Saturday in the capital area. For part of the time, the birders at the landfill used a black Subaru as a blind, taking a census through the windows, and trying to stay somewhat warm.

"Hear that eagle talking?" asked Mairs as he came out of the car to watch another eagle sitting on a snow-covered hillside.

The eagles eyed the group of gulls for a meal source. "If they see a laggard gull, one that doesn't look as fit as the others, that's potentially an entree," Mairs said. "They're opportunistic."

The bird watchers at Hatch Hill were part of a group of two dozen detailed to cover the Augusta area for the Maine Audubon's annual Christmas Bird Counts from Saturday through Jan. 5.

"The count, conducted for more than a century, is a census of early winter bird populations in more than 1,500 locations from Canada to Latin America," according to a press release from the society.

Mairs' group had started about 7 a.m. in the north Augusta area, counting 20 different bird species until reaching the landfill about midday. Any time of day is good for gulls at that site, Mairs said.

He found about 1,800 in one group.

"I like being here," he said, standing under blue skies in full sunlight that failed to warm the landfill to much more than 15 degrees Fahrenheit. "I like gulls and the identification challenge they pose. A lot of people think, 'Gulls, are they birds, too?'"

Lionel Quirion of Randolph stepped out of the car to report sighting about 30 redpolls, winter finches that breed in sub-Arctic regions and whose territory follows the rise and fall of the birch seed crops.

Too few birch seeds forces the birds to fly farther south to find food, said fellow birder Norman Famous of Augusta.

A few miles from the bevy of birds circling the active trash-dumping area at Hatch Hill, Jay Adams, director and curator of Old Fort Western, walked along quiet Myrtle and Maple streets, spotting birds at feeders and catching them flitting from branch to branch.

"Another dove just flew in," Adams said, just before starting to "pish," essentially call the birds by making a noise that arouses their curiosity.

He spotted five house sparrows in a tree eating snow for moisture. He tallied a dark-eyed junco after hearing its call. Sometimes, he said, spotting a bird in a tree is like seeking a needle in a haystack, so the bird calls and songs are used as well.

Adams planned to compile the data from the bird counters in the capital area. Later, it would be fed into the state and national data banks.

"Each team has a designated circle 15 miles in diameter (about 177 square miles) where they record every bird they find in the course of a single day during the count period," according to Maine Audubon. "Results of this count -- which Audubon launched on Christmas Day 1900 as an alternative to a then-popular holiday bird-hunting competition -- have been compiled to create the longest-running database in ornithology, a tremendously valuable resource for learning more about bird behavior and bird conservation."

The bird count in the greater Portland area was postponed until Dec. 22. The bird count in the Waterville area was canceled on Saturday.

Information about the bird count and other Maine Audubon activities is available on line at http://www.maineaudubon.org

Betty Adams -- 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com