The 124th annual Christmas Bird Count noticed dozens of various species and 1000’s of individual birds throughout Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, and the Tri-Cities.
Volunteers for the depend went out on Saturday Dec. 30 and managed to depend 21,303 individual birds and 89 completely different species.
An common yr, stated Jennifer Tayes, a volunteer with the depend. The highest they ever had was 108 completely different species.
“That may sound like a lot but unfortunately there were whole areas that were not covered because we did not have enough experienced counters to cover them,” defined Tayes, noting that every space wants an skilled birder or two after which others with much less or no expertise can be part of them to assist the depend.
This yr the best variety of birds noticed have been American crows, about 2,100, 2,502 Canada geese, 2,046 American wigeon, 2,863 mallards, and 1,847 European starlings.
Some of the weird birds seen this yr have been sandhill crane, Hutton’s vireo, snow geese, and a sora.
“Just because we don’t see the birds doesn’t mean they are not there! If they are well hidden or not vocalizing they can easily be missed which is why more the more eyes and ears we have the better,” stated Tayes.
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This yr additionally they had 10 feeder watchers add their counts to the overall.
Tayes was very excited to see {that a} pileated woodpecker was noticed.
“It is the largest woodpecker in Canada – 40 to 49 cm long – and always reminds me of the cartoon Woody Woodpecker,” exclaimed Tayes.
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Weather was cheap this yr with just a few gentle showers and a balmy excessive of seven levels, added Tayes.
The depend might be entered on the Audubon web site and might be available later within the yr for anybody to view.
Started in 1900, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count is North America’s longest-running citizen Science mission with counts in additional than 2,000 localities all through the Western Hemisphere.
The info collected by 1000’s of volunteer individuals kinds one of many world’s largest units of wildlife survey knowledge, the outcomes of that are used every day by conservation biologists and naturalists to evaluate the inhabitants traits and distribution of birds.
