A record-breaking number of bird species were spotted in the South Cariboo during the 2023 100 Mile Christmas Bird Count.
Paul Foth, the count’s coordinator, said unseasonably warm temperatures, lack of snow on the ground and open water on the lakes led to several unusual species being recorded on Saturday. Dec. 17. These factors all combined to result in 49 separate species being recorded by nine volunteers.
“One of the things that made the biggest difference was having open water. We had a lot of waterfowl species this year,” Foth said. “We had trumpeter swans, ducks, hooded and common mergansers and the other unusual thing was overwintering birds we don’t usually see this late into the season. Around town, which was my zone, I found some White-crowned and White-throated sparrows. Another volunteer and myself both saw a mourning dove at a bird feeder on Watson Lake, which is really unusual any time of year.”
As in previous years, Foth said that crows and ravens dominated the count with sheer numbers. This year he counted 340 American Crows and 219 Common Ravens, mostly at the South Cariboo Landfill. Pine Grosbeak and Black-capped Chickadees also were abundant with 115 and 102 individuals being spotted respectively.
Unusual birds this year included a Black-billed magpie, two White-breasted nuthatches, a Wilson Snipe and one northern pygmy owl.
When all was said and done Foth recorded 1,511 individual birds throughout the South Cariboo. While that’s more than the average he said it didn’t beat the record set in 2022, which was over 1,700.
Foth said he had slightly fewer volunteers than normal, so some of them had to double up and do multiple parts of the count zone. He thanked each one for the hard work they did counting birds by car and by foot as well as the five volunteers who kept vigil over their bird feeders.
“It’s always nice for birders to see more birds around in the winter but that does usually mean there’s warmer temperatures. With climate change that can also be a cause for longer-term alarm,” Foth mused. “For those of us who live in 100 Mile during the winter it’s colder and barren, so having a warmer Christmas bird count makes for a lot more fun and species to count. I’m really glad we were able to make it work this year and I’m really thankful for all the volunteers who joined. It was a good community effort.”
