It was a bumper year for the birds.
The 37th annual Banff-Canmore Christmas Bird Count last Saturday (Dec. 17) saw more than 2,900 individual birds counted – over 300 more than the long-term average of 2,600.
The total species count looks like it will come in around 44 bird species – it might go up or down one – and that’s compared to the long-term average of 43.5 species.
“Last year’s species count we had 41, so we’re up about three species,” said Mike McIvor, president of the Bow Valley Naturalists, the group that organizers the annual event.
“In terms of the number of individuals, we had about 1,750 last year, so we’re up 1,200 over last year.”
The Banff-Canmore count circle has its centre on the Bow River below Mount Rundle so as to include the Town of Banff west to Vermilion Lakes, and the Town of Canmore east to the Trans-Canada Highway 1A interchange.
Sixty-four people took part in this year’s count in extremely windy conditions. Temperatures were about zero when birders started out, but climbed to around 10 C by the afternoon.
This year’s event also had two species never previously recorded in this count – a redhead, a migrating medium-sized diving duck found in most of North America and Mexico, and a spotted towhee, a member of the sparrow family.
McIvor said redheads have been seen in the Bow Valley during peak migration times, but never on the day of the count and never so late in the season. It was spotted in Canmore.
“The one reason, of course, is because birds can fly… while the other reason could be because of the weather conditions, which were very windy,” he said.
“I am not sure where that duck was heading, but if it was heading to the coast, it’s possible it ran into some incredibly stiff headwinds and just needed to put down and found some open water.”
The spotted towhee, a large, striking, colourful sparrow typically found further west and south, was seen in Banff.
“We’ve never recorded it on the day of the Christmas count before, and while it has been seen here before, it’s very sporadic,” said McIvor.
Of particular interest in this year’s count was the fact that the number of individual common goldeneye, a medium-sized black-and-white diving duck, were down.
This year’s count reported six, which is the second lowest ever recorded. As few as three were counted in 1979, while as many as 230 were reported in the 1990s. There were 30 last year.
The common goldeneye is one of the last ducks to migrate south in fall. It will often winter as far north as open water permits, but there are no definitive theories on why numbers are down in the count this year.
“Who knows whether that species is experiencing any overall population changes, or whether conditions are better for migration this year, or whether it was a bad breeding year and there are not as many around,” said McIvor.
This year’s count was also the first time in 37 years that an American three-toed woodpecker was not seen on the day of the count. There was one, however, seen the following day.
“It is strange when you a see a species every year for 36 years and then don’t see one in the 37th year,” said McIvor.
“We’ll keep an eye out to see if numbers do really seem to be down, or whether we go out for one day and who knows what will happen.”
There were also no owls recorded this year, despite hopes the great grey owl seen in Banff last month would stick around to be included in the official count.
The Christmas Bird Count also reported 237 mountain chickadees, the highest recorded since 1997, and there were 97 red-breasted nuthatch this year compared to 19 in each of the two previous years.
Mallards and rock pigeons were also way up over previous years. Counters also spotted 111 common redpoles this year, compared to last year’s count, when none were recorded.
This year was also the first year since 2007 that red crossbills were recorded, with a total of 76.
Birders are also hoping to retain the highest count in the country for Townsend’s solitaire, a member of the thrush family.
“We had 16 this year and last year we had 21,” said McIvor.
“That’s not a big decline, but it remains to be seen whether or not we will retain the Canadian crown because last year the count for that species was the highest in Canada.”
They began more than a century ago in the United States to protest the existing Christmas tradition in which teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds and other animals in one day.
This year’s count was expected to involve more than 57,000 volunteers in more than 2,000 locations. Results from these counts may be used to help track bird populations as they respond to global climate change.
The National Audubon Society and Bird Studies Canada co-ordinates this massive international volunteer event. After count results have been submitted, they may be viewed at: www.audubon.org/bird/cb or www.bsc-eoc.org
