Forty-three species seen!
The Wild River Audubon Chapter had 28 people counting birds in our area on December 18th during our 46th annual Christmas Bird Count, CBC. Eleven people counted birds coming to their bird feeders, while the others travelled within the 15-mile diameter circle that included most of the Chisago Lakes area. The 43 species counted this year beat the yearly average of 36. The total birds counted was 3,938 which was near average. Our count data is entered into an international data base that records CBC information gathered across North and Central America. The first CBC was held in 1900, and have continued every year since then. Our data begins with the 1976 CBC. We have tallied about 175,000 birds during those counts, or about 4,000 each year!
Interesting Trends
Even with this data that only spans 46 years, some interesting trends can be easily seen. We’ve counted 13 species of birds every year: pheasant, pigeon, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, blue jay, crow, chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, tree sparrow, goldfinch, and house sparrow. The 106 other species counted during one year or another can be separated into resident and migrant birds. To complicate matters even more, we have native, introduced, and native reintroduced species. This year we counted 45 pheasants, which are native to China, and 184 house sparrows which are native in Europe. What I always thought of as one of our migrant birds, but is now fairly common throughout the winter is the robin. We counted 272 this year. The tree sparrow is one of our true migrant birds. They spend their breeding season in the high Arctic’s shrubby fields, but migrate here for our warmer winter weather. Our friendly little chickadees are an example of the birds that are year-around residents here. An unusual migrant species that we’ve only seen once before were the 13 White-winged Crossbills that had moved south into our area for this CBC.
Unexpected Visitors
We also counted two new species that are migrants that we would not expect to see except during their migration transits between the southern states to northern Canada in the spring and fall. The Yellow-rumped Warbler is usually the first of the spring warbler migration that passes through on their way to nesting sites in Northern Minnesota and southern Canada. The White-crowned Sparrow migrates to northern Canada and Alaska. Both were seen in Chisago City this year.
Species thought Lost and Re-introduced
One of the native re-introduced birds falls into the ‘love them, or hate them’ category! The Giant Canada Goose, was thought to be extinct before a small flock was discovered at Rochester, MN, in the 1960s. Thanks to, or maybe not, the hatching and rearing program at Carlos Avery Game Farm at Forest Lake, MN, and favorable habitat of grassy lawns, this bird is now quite familiar to all of us. The largest count during our CBC was in 2006 when the Chisago Lakes remained partially unfrozen in December. On that day we counted 1,664 geese. Another of our native reintroduced birds is the majestic Trumpeter Swans! We saw the first bird on our 1992 CBC. We have now averaged 140 birds during the last 4 years. Thanks to Global Positioning Satellites, GPS, we can even trace one of the birds known as 6E! It, with its transmitter that reports its location every 15 minutes, is presently spending much of its time on the St. Croix River near Taylors Falls.
Wild River’s Count: one of 2,646 counts in 2020
Our Wild River Christmas Bird Count was just one of the 2,646 that were held in 2020 when the data were finalized. The data are collected by volunteers and shared world-wide at no charge. We appreciate all of the people that enjoy feeding birds, simply helping preserve a part of our local habitat, or welcoming us to count the birds at their feeders. Thank You! Happy 2022 to all.
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