Nakusp CBC results

[Gary Davidson]

Hi All,

What an interesting year! At 2:00PM the day before the count, Summit Lake and Box Lake were mostly open. By the following morning, both were frozen over! Unfortunately, this cost us a few species - Trumpeter Swans, Hooded Mergansers, Common Mergansers and Ring-necked Ducks, were on these 2 lakes shortly before count day. The Virginia Rail in the Summit Lake marsh also abandoned due to icy conditions. However, the cold front that brought in these icy conditions also brought in some birds from the north that had not been around just a day or two before - Bohemian Waxwings, large numbers of American Robins, Killdeer, Short-eared Owl (4 of them!), Varied Thrush and Snow Buntings. Our final species count was 42, which is right on our 48-year average of 42.3. The Western Meadowlark was a first for our count. 

Thanks to everyone for their participation. Next year will be the 50th Nakusp CBC! Maybe a celebration is in order?!

Full list below:

Mallard 31

Bufflehead 15

Common Goldeneye 48

goldeney sp? 1

duck sp? 1

Killdeer 2

Wilson's Snipe 1

American Herring Gull 1

Horned Grebe 45

Great Blue Heron 1

Bald Eagle 1

Red-tailed Hawk 3

Great Horned Owl 1

Short-eared Owl 4 (on count only 6 times before)

Downy Woodpecker 1

Hairy Woodpecker 1

Northern Flicker 35

Pileated Woodpecker 1

Merlin 1

Steller's Jay 6 (low number, average 30)

American Crow 74

Common Raven 120

Bl-capped Chickadee 41 (a bit low, average 77)

Ch-backed Chickadee 7 (low, average 26)

Golden-crowned Kinglet 51

Red-breasted Nuthatch 24

White-breasted Nuthatch 1 (on count only 5 times before)

Brown Creeper 2

Pacific Wren 2

American Dipper 1

European Starling 16

Townsend's Solitaire 14 (high, previous max 7)

Varied Thrush 6

American Robin 158  (very high, average 7, only once before has number exceeded 30)

Bohemian Waxwing 280

Red Crossbill 55

Pine Siskin 84

American Goldfinch 65

Snow Bunting 25 

Dark-eyed Junco 35

Harris's Sparrow 1

White-throated Sparrow 1

Song Sparrow 18

Western Meadowlark 1 (first time on count)

passerine sp? 40

cw

Canada Goose

Hooded Merganser

Common Merganser

Barred Owl