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Some interesting birds were spotted in our area this December, thanks to an annual tradition that’s been tracking bird populations for more than 100 years.
According to Birds Canada, up until the 1900’s, it was customary for many to go bird hunting on Christmas Day in North America.
On Dec. 25, 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman began to change this when he proposed a new holiday tradition: counting birds instead of hunting them.
President of Bancroft’s Field Naturalist club Karin Dietrich says that the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) takes place over a three-week period every year in December and early January. The CBC is done in conjunction with Bird Studies Canada and Audubon and is now the longest running citizen science-based bird count.
“Basically it helps give us a bit of a snapshot in terms of how birds are doing. Of course taking into account that there are eruption years. So some years if there’s good seed crop here, we’ll see more birds than in other years.”
This year the bird count took place on Dec. 14 in our area.
Dietrich says that some notable moments of the count included a horned lark spotted at the Dungannon Waste Site, cardinals spotted in downtown Bancroft and a bald eagle chasing a loon on Baptiste Lake.
“I just did a comparison from when I was first able to retrieve our data from 2001 and it’s just interesting to see the progression of, for instance, wild turkeys or cardinals and how we’re seeing more and more of them in the area. Also bald eagles.”
According to Dietrich anyone can take part in the count, regardless of experience.
“So for people that don’t know anything, they can let me know and we can have them go out with someone who is a more experienced birder. Or if people do have some knowledge then they can certainly help us out by taking on a certain area or even just submitting feeder counts.”
This year there were 10 participants covering our area and three people counting the birds that came to their feeders. On count day, 29 species and 1,198 birds were found.
According to the Bancroft Field Naturalists Club, this is eight species less than last year and half the number of birds, however, results were closer to average.
Other birds spotted include 17 Hooded Mergansers, one Loon, five Ruffed Grouse, 39 Wild Turkeys, five Bald Eagles 74 Herring Gulls, 161 Rock Pigeons, 15 Mourning Doves, two Barred Owls, two Snow Buntings, two Evening Grosbeaks, 58 American Goldfinches and four Northern Cardinals.
According to Dietrich, Christmas bird counts happen in over 2,000 localities across the western hemisphere.
You can learn more about the Christmas Bird Count here.