Participants in the 100 Mile House Christmas Bird Count found some new birds not present before in 100 Mile House.
The bird count took place on Dec. 14, revealing four new species that had not been seen before in prior counts. The first bird that was newly observed was the Northern Pintail, which Paul Foth, the coordinator of the 100 Mile Christmas Bird Count, described as a "beautiful, elegant duck."
"Six of those were found. We get those in migration and in the summer a little bit, but usually not in the winter," Foth noted, adding it had been found by a volunteer in Horse Lake.
In addition, the American goshawk, which Foth described as a "large Raptor" was also found, but Foth noted it was an immature one.
"That's one that's year-round, but very rare. There's not many around so that hadn't been recorded on the bird count."
Other new species that were found included a red breasted sapsucker, a "unique bird for this far north" according to Foth as they do not breed very much in 100 Mile House, but instead, usually come up north to Quesnel and Prince George, The final rare bird found was a Marsh wren, which Foth described as being very common during the summer, but which usually does not show up during the winter.
"But I found two, possibly three of them, they were calling in a marsh," Foth remarked.
The total amount of birds counted by the count was 2,509 individuals spread out across 49 different species - two more than last year, which saw 47 different species counted.
Foth said they found 471 American crows, which he said was the highest count for crows - which had beaten out the 339 ravens they found. In addition, they counted 206 black-capped chickadees, as well as 98 mountain chickadees. Volunteers also found three different owl species: the Great Grey Owl, the Northern Pygmy-owl, and the Short-eared Owl.
"Part of the reason we had such a high number of chickadees is that there are so many people out counting birds. There are flocks of chickadees that sometimes are accompanied by other songbirds, like nut hatches, that move around pretty much anywhere in the winter," Foth explained.
The way the count worked was that it was conducted within a circle - in this case, the circle had 101 Mile at the centre of it.
"It goes north and includes almost all of 108 Mile Ranch - and then I think it goes south to about 93 Mile - so the very edge of Highway 24 is the circle. And then it has some areas to the east, such as just the close end of Horse Lake, and it goes out to about Buffalo Creek on Canim-Hendrix Lake Road," Foth explained. He also added, thankfully, that they were able to do the count with the most volunteers they ever had.
"We had 21 volunteers. Some of them were counting their bird feeders at home, but we had at least 16 who went out into the field to help count parts of the area which was a big help," Foth explained. "I'm really grateful for all of the volunteers who came forward. We even had some last-minute who joined, who were able to count areas that might not have otherwise been covered."
This bird count was Foth's last year coordinating the event. Next year, Susan Gower will be taking on his role. Foth said he could not go into detail about his future plans but praised Gower for taking on the bird count, calling her a "very involved and enthusiastic birder."
"She's been involved in the Christmas bird count as long as we've been started up again a few years ago. She regularly finds a lot of the cool birds that we get on the count, including all the waterfowl this time - so the northern pintails, that was her and her husband finding that," Foth said.
Overall, Foth has called the volunteers a "really great group."
"I was grateful for that. And everything helped."
