Golden’s 22nd annual Christmas Bird count

Dark-eyed Junco by Larry Halverson

Ellen Zimmerman, coordinator of the Golden Christmas Bird count, sent this report.

On December, 27, 2011 a group of enthusiastic birders out and about and at their feeders recorded a record high number of species. 41 species were recorded, while in previous counts the average was approximately 30 species. However, the number of individual birds was well below the record because of the relatively low count of bohemian waxwings.

Highlights included, two owls a Northern Hawk Owl and a Great Horned Owl, A great blue Heron, a mourning dove and a killdeer.  Also a record number of bald eagles were recorded, likely due to the mild weather and open water.

Weather - Started out, -1 Celsius, heavy overcast, light snow flurries changing to overcast + 1 Celsius, wind, se 20 kil. Changing to calm

# of field participants-14 number of feeder watchers4, # of species- 41, # of individual birds  1136

Ruffed grouse  11

Spruce grouse   4

Great Blue Heron 1

Bald Eagle –10

Hawk species 1

Killdeer  1

Great Horned Owl 1

Northern Hawk Owl 1

Mourning Dove 1

Rock Doves –4

Northern Flicker  16

Downy Woodpecker   15

Hairy  woodpecker   9

Pileated Woodpecker  5

Clark’s Nutcracker 1

Stellar’s jay 4

Black Billed Magpie 9

American Crow 21

Common Raven  265

Golden Crowned Kinglet  4

Black-capped  chickadee 180

Mountain Chickadee  21

Boreal chickadees   3

Brown Creeper  2

Red-breasted Nuthatch  15

White breasted Nuthatch  2

Townsend solitaire 1

Robin  1

Starlings 10

Bohemian Waxwing 243

Junco  17

Song sparrow 5

Pine grosbeaks  40

Common Redpoll 124

American goldfinch 10

Cassins’s finch 16

House finch 2

White Winged Crossbill 1

Pine Siskin   7

Evening Grosbeak 12

House sparrows 40

Windermere Christmas Bird Count

American Robin one of the 52 species recorded.
Photo by Larry Halverson

Seventy four people counted 3,927 individual birds during the 34th annual Lake Windermere District Christmas Bird Count. The number of birds is up by 47% from last year. Some of the increase can be attributed to high number Bohemian Waxwings and Common Redpolls. The total of 52 species recorded this year matches the average seen during the last 10 years of the count.  

Some of this year’s highlights include a new species for the count. Dean and Bill Nicholson observed 2 Trumpeter Swans in the open water at Athalmer. They also spotted a lone Hooded Merganser which has only been recorded 5 times in the history of the count. Many of the feeder watchers commented on the lack of birds however one hot spot was Ron Speta’s yard. He said “in the 25 years of watching his feeder this has been the best!’ He recorded 16 species. Troy Rad once again ventured into the high country a found a couple of White-tailed Ptarmigan. Elisha and Haley Bowels were delighted to see 8 American Robins in their grandma Luciel Campbell’s yard. Fran Kimpton saw an unusual bird and after some study it turned out to be a partly albino Mountain Chickadee. There is also another 'mystery' bird in  Linda Taylor’s  yard. From the description it may be a Northern Hawk Owl but it needs a little further investigation to confirm. Thanks to Greg Wagner a visiting birder from High River whos keen ears found the only Northern Pygmy Owl near Eline Madson School.  A couple of birds that were noticeably missing were the Great Blue Heron and Common Merganser.

For a complete list of birds counted see Wings Over the Rockies