Isabella CBC Results

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This year’s December 31^st Isabella Christmas Bird Count was remarkable in several ways. We came within 12 hours and a scant ½" of snow of experiencing our first snowless Isabella count, making this one of the very few of our 42 counts where no counting was done by snowshoe, skis, snowmobile or dogsled. The lack of snow did give counters almost unprecedented access to roads throughout the count circle, which was fortunate because we had to find areas for a record number of participants this year: 52 afield and another four at feeders. 

The sheer number of participants, increased coverage of the count circle and mild weather throughout December certainly played a role in the unusual number of records set this year, including numbers of bald eagles, American crows, red crossbills and total species (see table below). The same factors contributed to the above-average numbers tallied for many of the species found this year, resulting in a lopsided total number of birds, 1855, 73% above the count average.

Other records reflect actual changes in bird numbers, like the 15 rough-legged hawks (we’d recorded just a single bird in our previous 41 years) and 63 ruffed grouse, more than a four-fold increase over our previous record of 14! There were a few exceptions to this abundance, including boreal chickadees, but most notably pine grosbeaks; seven were found, barely above our record low of six, and well below our count average of 86.

I understand other count compilers are accusing me of bringing in the equivalent of birding “ringers” in a bid to inflate our numbers. While it’s true that Kim Eckert, Frank Nicoletti and Erik Brunke are all respected professional guides, they volunteered to come and waived the substantial appearance fees they normally receive when agreeing to participate in CBCs. That didn’t lessen their productivity, though. At their first stop, they counted eleven species, not individual birds, more species than most teams found all day, including one party I happen to be intimately familiar with that hiked for seven hours off-trail through the woods and could only manage a list of seven species. (Harrumph!) They also tallied individual birds at the impressive rate of 52/hour, almost twice as fast as the next-closest team.

Still, their number of total species fell one short of taking down our perennial powerhouse team that came in with 18 species - LindGross, who, like other celebrities, rappers and influencers, now go by one name.

Can we generalize from our numbers and say anything about bird numbers collectively? Just looking at the raw data, it’s tempting to conclude that most species were more abundant than usual this winter. That’s certainly at odds with the common refrain heard throughout the area leading up to count day: Where are all the birds? A useful leveling statistic to the year-to-year noise caused by varying observer effort, weather and access is the number of birds seen/party hour. This year it was 17, slightly above our count average of 15. So even though many species were not as abundant as suggested by our raw numbers, they weren’t as scarce as many observers believe, either.

Looking at the numbers and locations of winter finches may go a long way to explaining this disconnect between anecdotal reports and our numbers; with few exceptions, finches aren’t visiting feeders, at least not yet. Pine grosbeaks aren’t because, as previously noted, they’ve gone missing, or more accurately, never arrived here from their northern breeding grounds. Common redpoll numbers were more than three times our average, but there is still an abundance of their favorite food, birch seed, available in the woods, giving them little reason to visit feeders. Tom Savre and I witnessed redpolls feeding in yellow birch tops laden with cone-like clusters of female catkins in the south end of the count circle, the only place in the circle where yellow birch is common. Even the unusual reports of small numbers of red crossbills appearing at feeders last month barely hinted at the numbers at large; this year’s tally handily exceeded our previous record. 

Below are the results, and following that, photos from the woods and our count dinner. The great bird shots are compliments of Sparky Stensaas; those from the dinner are by our official count dinner photographer, Lawson Gerdes.

 

ALL ISABELLA CHRISTMAS COUNTS SINCE 1982 (n = 42) (New records in boldface red)
Species		12-31-23		# Years Counted		Previous High Count		Previous Low Count		Average
Common goldeneye				9		37				2
Northern goshawk				7		1				<1
American Bald eagle		6		8		3				<1
Eagle sp		1
Gyrfalcon				1		1				<1
Rough-legged hawk		15		2		1				<1
Spruce grouse		5		24		22				3
Ruffed grouse		63		35		14				6
Grouse sp.		2
Great horned owl				3		1				<1
Northern hawk-owl		2		6		5				<1
Barred owl		1		2		1				<1
Great gray owl		1		12		11				<1
Northern saw-whet owl				1		0				<1
Owl sp.
Belted kingfisher				1		1				<1
Red-bellied woodpecker				1		0				<1
Pileated woodpecker		3		39		18				4
Hairy woodpecker		29		42		46		2		18
Downy woodpecker		88		42		152		4		53
Black-backed woodpecker		11		34		18				4
Three-toed woodpecker				6		3				<1
Gray jay		43		42		154		10		43
Blue jay		67		42		157		11		45
Common raven		106		42		147		14		68
American crow		12		15		8				1
Black-capped chickadee		340		42		717		62		259
Boreal chickadee		6		40		48				11
White-breasted nuthatch				35		15				3
Red-breasted nuthatch		147		42		562		8		96
Brown creeper		4		13		7				<1
Golden-crowned kinglet		2		6		5				<1
Gray catbird				1		1				<1
Brown thrasher				1		1				<1
Bohemian waxwing				5		200				7
Cedar waxwing				2		17				<1
Northern shrike		5		21		3				<1
Red-winged blackbird				1		5				<1
Brewer's blackbird				1		2				<1
Blackbird sp.
Common grackle				1		1				<1
Evening grosbeak		1		22		370				30
Purple finch		1		13		180				10
Pine grosbeak		7		42		225		6		86
Common redpoll		670		38		1480				202
Hoary redpoll		2		6		2				<1
Pine siskin		21		28		192				25
American goldfinch		15		22		243				26
Red crossbill		133		30		117				26
White-winged crossbill		26		25		342				25
Crossbill sp.		20
Dark-eyed junco				9		2				<1
American tree sparrow				1		1				<1
White-throated sparrow				3		1				<1
Song sparrow				1		1				<1
Total Individual Birds		1855				2882		449		1070
Total Species		30				28		15		22
Total Party Miles		203				385.5		84		208
Total Party Hours		111				125.5		31		73
Participants Afield		52				51		10		29
Birds Seen/Party Hour		17				33		5		15

 

 

 

 

Great gray owl, Tomahawk Rd

A welcome injection of youthful vigor came to the dinner with the folks from the National Forest Lodge

Tom Savre and old-growth yellow birch

Three of the four members of Team LindGross, struggling with the higher math required to tally up their impressive totals (L to R: Sarah Grosshuesch, Sharon and Jim Lind – not pictured, Dave Grosshuesch)

 

Lawson Gerdes (official count dinner photographer) zeroing in on Lynden and hers find of the day, a black-backed woodpecker

 

Mary Shedd, aka The Lasagna Queen, preparing one of several pans of lasagna for the 45 dinner attendees

 

The Pros: (L to R, front row) Erik Brunke, Kim Eckert, Frank Nicoletti: (Back row photobombers) Count dinner Master of Ceremonies Steve Schon, count compiler Steve Wilson holding Kim’s latest edition of A Birder’s Guide to Minnesota

Canada jay eating lichen, something neither Sparky or I have seen before

 

Steve Wilson

Isabella