1997 WOLFVILLE
CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT
by
Angus MacLean
This was
the 98th Christmas Bird Count in North America and the 45th consecutive
Wolfville Count. Initially, on December 25, 1900, 27 observers participated on
25 different Christmas Bird Counts. Since those first years, the number of
counts have so grown in number and scope that, of course, not all counts can be
held on Christmas, so there is a an official count period from mid-December to
early January. There are about 1700 official individual counts and over 45,000
observers take part. Of course there are also many “unofficial” ones throughout
all the states and provinces.
In early November we had our first snow and
unusually some of this snow is still with us. Water bodies froze early forcing
some waterfowl to migrate earlier than normal. These two factors had a decided
effect on the Count numbers as for example there were no warblers recorded for
the first time in years. Nevertheless sparrows made a good showing being almost
identical to last year’s numbers. On Count Day temperatures ranged from -10C to
-4C with sunny conditions particularly in the forenoon and light winds all day.
Participants included 50 observers in 25-27 field parties and another 62 at 51
feeders. In terms of party hours and distance travelled the effort by field
observers was similar to last year..
The total of 73 species was average for
this Count in recent years. The total number seen was 73665, well short of our
provincial record of 92,412 seen in 1992. There was one species new to the
Count, an adult Peregrine Falcon seen at Habitant. This brought the total
species seen since the Count’s inception to 146. Two other great finds were 1) a
Hermit Thrush, seen by Phil Taylor, as it has only been recorded once before on
the Wolfville Count, and 2) two Black-backed Woodpeckers, found by Bernard
Forsythe, which has also been recorded only once before. However the rarest
species were found just after the Count Period, both near the Wolfville sewage
ponds where Bernard Forsythe turned up a LeConte’s Sparrow and Richard Stern a
Seaside Sparrow. Both were undoubtedly there on Count Day but because of their
furtive nature, searchers would have been unusually lucky to locate them.
Inexplicably in spite of the snow cover Northern Flicker even increased over
last year’s record of 34, to a new high of 48. Fox Sparrows are seldom found
this late so three at feeders, equalling the all-time high, was a good find. In
contrast to the 1996 Count, irruptive species were in good to high numbers and I
understand this is typical across North America. Notable were 999 Common Redpoll
and 2107 Bohemian Waxwing, the latter easily outdoing the previous high of 477.
In fact Cedar Waxwings almost doubled their previous high, with 385 vs. 194.
Similar to last year, Herring Gull numbers were lower than normal. However
around 4 p.m. approaching high tide, there were huge numbers of gulls over the
Minas Basin which made our count of 12,000+ look a bit small.
The
feeder-watchers contributed 39 species with the aforementioned Fox Sparrows and
a Baltimore Oriole being the most interesting. Eva Urban’s at Avonport was the
most productive with 26 species (not all at the feeders). The Yellow-headed
Blackbird which had been present in Avonport and Gaspereau for over a month
appeared at Urbans feeder on December 20, just before Count Day!
The
post-count gathering at Acadia was well attended as usual. The chowder, chili
and desserts were greatly enjoyed by all. Thanks go to Brenda Thexton, Judy
Tufts, Lorna Hart and to the others who contributed to the event. Special thanks
to the field observers for their efforts and to all of those who checked their
feeder that day. I would also like to thank Jim Wolford and Mike McCall for
coordinating and compiling the efforts of the feeder-watchers and to my wife,
Stella, for checking the data.
| Species | Number |
| Great Blue Heron | 6 |
| Canada Goose | 453 |
| Black Duck | 956 |
| Mallard | 116 |
| Greater Scaup | 2 |
| Surf Scoter | 1 |
| White-winged Scoter | 6 |
| Scoter (sp.) | 60 |
| Common Goldeneye | 10 |
| Common Merganser | 5 |
| Bald Eagle | 495 |
| .... adult | 243 |
| .... immature | 164 |
| .... unknown | 88 |
| Northern Harrier | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 8 |
| Goshawk | 2 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 143 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 10 |
| Merlin | 4 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 1 |
| Ring-necked Pheasant | 282 |
| Ruffed Grouse | 11 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 131 |
| Herring Gull | 12613 |
| Iceland Gull | 5 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 2498 |
| Rock Dove | 1290 |
| Mourning Dove | 1024 |
| Barred Owl | 1 |
| Short-eared Owl | 7 |
| Owl (sp.) | 1 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 1 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 77 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 48 |
| Northern Flicker | 48 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 5 |
| Black-backed Woodpecker | 2 |
| Horned Lark | 74 |
| Blue Jay | 1065 |
| American Crow | 14706 |
| Common Raven | 404 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 871 |
| Boreal Chickadee | 10 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 120 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 18 |
| Brown Creeper | 8 |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 64 |
| American Robin | 482 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 6 |
| Hermit Thrush | 1 |
| Bohemian Waxwing | 2107 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 385 |
| European Starling | 26668 |
| Northern Cardinal | 2 |
| American Tree Sparrow | 202 |
| Chipping Sparrow | 5 |
| Savannah Sparrow | 41 |
| Song Sparrow | 185 |
| Fox Sparrow | 3 |
| Sharp-tailed Sparrow | 1 |
| Swamp Sparrow | 5 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 36 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 1608 |
| Lapland Longspur | 1 |
| Snow Bunting | 547 |
| Common Grackle | 2 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 15 |
| Northern Oriole | 1 |
| Pine Grosbeak | 249 |
| Purple Finch | 48 |
| Red Crossbill | 1 |
| White-winged Crossbill | 73 |
| Common Redpoll | 999 |
| Pine Siskin | 212 |
| American Goldfinch | 963 |
| Evening Grosbeak | 290 |
| House Sparrow | 711. |
| Total number of species | 73 |
| Total number of individuals | 73665 |
| Other species seen in Count Week....Yellow-headed Blackbird. |