Fine weather, December-style meant that Wrangell Christmas Bird counters were able to cover much of our marine territory as well as offer good visibility from shore. This year’s count was held on December 29. Twenty-eight participants enumerated birds by foot, car, boat, and from the comfort of home.
Because the water was calm, boat observers easily located the usual ducks – American wigeon, greater scaup, bufflehead, harlequin and common goldeneyes, as well as nearly 800 Barrow’s goldeneyes. Last year over 1900 Barrow’s goldeneyes were counted. A small number of the less commonly seen long-tailed ducks were counted. Other water birds of interest were a yellow-billed loon, horned grebe and double-crested cormorant. The large flock of western grebes usually sighted in Zimovia Strait each year was missing on this year’s count day.
Gulls observed included mew, herring and glaucous-winged as well as 73 glaucous gulls.
Common in spring but uncommon in winter, a flock of 54 dunlins was the only shorebird recorded.
Heavy snowfall the day before the count meant that a number of varied thrushes and American robins were frequenting yards, as were Northern flickers and a black-billed magpie.
Notable feeder birds included an American tree sparrow, golden-crowned sparrow and one mountain chickadee. The dark-eyed junco was the most frequently seen feeder bird, followed closely by rock pigeons. Over 100 European starlings, about 1/3 more than last year were counted.
Flocks of Bohemian waxwings and pine grosbeaks have been feeding on mountain ash berries for the past several weeks and small numbers were still around to be counted, as were common redpolls and white-winged crossbills. Around 80 pine siskins also made the count.
In all, 3688 birds were counted, down considerably from last year’s 5284 individuals. The 64 species located was up from last year’s 53 species.
The numbers from this year’s Christmas Bird Count, the 113th annual event, were tabulated by Joe Delabrue with the Wrangell Ranger District and will be included in the National Audubon Society’s North American results. They will be available to researchers and the public. When combined with other surveys, the data provides a picture of how the continent’s bird populations have changed in time and space over the past hundred years.
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