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More species, less birds

Annual Christmas Bird Count turns up some surprising finds A big thank-you to the 26 field members and 6 feeder watchers who showed for the 13 th annual count is in order — a nice day, little snow at valley level, open lakes and enthusiasm ensur

Annual Christmas Bird Count turns up some surprising finds

A big thank-you to the 26 field members and 6 feeder watchers who showed for the 13 th annual count is in order — a nice day, little snow at valley level, open lakes and enthusiasm ensured a successful count for those few birds who did manage to hang around Whistler for the start of the winter.

More than half of the participants drove in from the Fraser Valley — Greater Vancouver, Squamish, Pemberton and even Brooklyn, New York, to help out with the count. Without them the exercise would have been very difficult. The move to a weekend date for the count to encourage a larger local volunteer presence did not work out.

The evening tally-up of the day’s work at Karl’s cramped cabin yielded a surprising 48 species (two more than last year), but 1867 fewer birds – 2763 in total. The volume reduction appears to be the universal trend throughout southwestern B.C. this year and it may well be the case for the interior, once reports began to leak through to us. So what are the high- and low-lights this year?

w The "volume" bird was the Glaucous-winged Gull (half at the dump, and the others on the lakes). Surprisingly there were very few hybrids among them which is contrary to the findings at Squamish a week earlier. No other gull species were seen despite diligent checking on everyone’s part.

w Heather’s party found our first ever winter Ruby-crowned Kinglet (one only!) and long overdue Horned Grebes – netting two additions to our Christmas list. Horned Grebes were also seen at the D’arcy Count a few days earlier.

w Common loons were also recorded for the first time on Green and Alta Lakes by three or four parties, but two individuals only.

w A record number (three) of Northern Pygmy Owls were seen in the alpine on both mountains, with Jack Souther spotting the first at daybreak (7 a.m.) on Blackcomb, and Ken Melamed registering the second soon after on Whistler. Pygmy owls also turned up at the new Nanoose Bay count on the same day and also at the Banff count.

w This year was the first in many where we scored zero on Pine Grosbeaks, White-winged Crossbills, Purple Finch and other allies, and the counts of Pine Siskins and Red Crossbills were low. However, House Finches showed up like gangbusters at several feeders.

w Alas, the White-tailed Ptarmigan were up to their old tricks with several sightings in count week, but disappearing completely on count day! Grr!

w Count week additions netted only 4 species: Two Gadwall that had been with us all autumn took off on the 19 th ; one Varied Thrush at Mrs. Souther’s feeder is definitely a rare find in all counts, so far, this year; Common Mergansers were on Alta Lake on the 19 th ; and the above noted Ptarmigan disappearance. There was also a Great Blue Heron on the 16 th but it has since failed to reappear for count week, beginning on the 18 th .

w Woodpeckers were also hard to find with singles of Downy and Harry being unusually low, but two Red-breasted Sapsuckers were an unexpected high. Historically we spot 15-20 woodpeckers, but this year’s eight matches a 1992 low.

w In the "jay" birds category, the Stellers were slightly below average, Gray jays were twice the average, Clarks nutcracker about par, Northwest and Crow species were light by 100 or more and the raven count was two above our historic low of 65, and one fifth of last year’s record count of the species.

w Nuthatches came in at 50 per cent of the norm; Winter Wrens were at par, and four Brown Creepers is a high. Brewer’s Blackbirds were also at 50 per cent, and the juncos were 30 per cent below average.

All in all, it was a low volume but the species count was eight above our expectations, and certainly the Pygmy Owl "invasion" is very noteworthy.

How did we fare against our rival, Banff-Canmore? Last year they were one species higher, but our overall volume (4530) was bigger. This year the tables were turned; Whistler was two species higher (48), but Banff counted more than 3,000 birds.

Volumes, however, are lower this year on nearly all counts and some are laying the blame on the exceptionally cold early spring which plagued all of western Canada right through to the Beaufort Sea coast up north. However, there are probably other reasons, such as a warm interior this autumn that appears to have played games with the southward migration.

The concern with the Whistler count is the drop in local participants despite advertising and cajoling on the phone and in e-mails. Last year it was said to be reluctance to a mid-week count date, and so we changed to a weekend, which brought out a myriad of other excuses. So next year we are back to a mid-week date of December 16 th or 17 th because I need more volunteers and I found Saturday very inconvenient in my Christmas season movements.

This report must also say a word about the second Pemberton-Mt. Currie count, which was held on December 15 th on a partially sunny day. Again, there was local enthusiasm and two party areas were "manned" by locals who knew their birds with an especially good count from McKenzie Slough. The hot area, however, was the lower Birkenhead which saw a wide variety throughout the day to provide a significant contribution to the 50 species seen.

Bald Eagles totaled 50 and there was one only Golden Eagle (the press got it wrong), and a few small flocks of Snow Geese were a beautiful addition to the backdrop of Mt. Currie. The count registered about 1,000 more birds than last year and could have been much more if the gulls had hung around on the Birkenhead for a few more days. The American Dipper count was 50 and not doubly higher as wanted. If we could have hiked the full course of the Birkenhead, the figure would have been easily reached.

Not to go unmentioned was the first ever and very aesthetic D’arcy-Devine count. This narrow valley locale in the heart of the Coast Mountains provided 45 species, including a Band-tailed Pigeon, two Townsend’s Solitaire and a Pacific Loon – three of which that could not be found on the Ladner count (B.C.’s biggest). The countdown at Dan Cumming’s residence, overlooking Anderson Lake, was the final icing on the cake.

That winds it up for 2002. For those who want to see data on other areas, navigate your comfy fire-side computer to http://www.bsc-eoc.org

Patience is a needed virtue! And see you all next year.