The weather was on our side for the last Museum’s annual Christmas Bird Count held on Saturday, December 28, 2019. It was mild, 5/6 ºC, with S/E 25 km/h wind, a bit foggy, a bit rainy and 95% humidity.
We had 5 groups and 24 participants on Saturday, December 28. A big thank-you to all of the participants, but especially to Andy Ellingsen, Chris Napper, Peter Elliott, Tamias Nettle, Samantha Statton, Laurel and Tom Bohart, and Christine Robinson (on January 5), who were bird count leaders. Thanks also to our other observers: Uschi Koebberling, Ann Dewar, Gary Cork and Elinore Harwood, Carol and Richard Trueman, Jurek Trzesicki, Christian and Aileen Gronau, Peter Elliott, and George Sirk, who reported their bird feeders’ numbers or birds from areas not covered by our regular routes.
The results are available on our Museum’s bird count page.
It was the first time that we noticed greater yellowlegs, spotted in two different locations: in the Whaletown Lagoon and in the south end. It is quite possible these birds are nesting on Cortes Island. It would be nice to get a local picture of these birds. If you get any pictures, please share them with the Museum.
Overall we had 38 participants and 9 bird feeders’ observers. A big thank-you to all of you. And a big thank-you to the owners of the private places around the island we were invited to in order to count the birds.
We counted 3149 individuals, 65 species, plus 4 species in the Count Week (CW).
