ladner bird count
4 snow geese, flying overhead
I’ve been spending lots of time out in the marshes of ladner lately. Tuesday was the “Christmas bird count” in Ladner. Basically, the bird count is a way for large numbers of people all over the continent to go out and assess the wild bird populations. This was the 106th year that it’s happened, so it is still providing valuable long-term wildlife information to ornithologists and conservationists.
the ladner count occurred in a circular area 24km in diameter, which was divided into about 10 different sections. it included Point Roberts, Tsawwassen, Ladner, and part of South Richmond (aka steveston). The group i was in was in charge of Westham Island, where the Reifel Wildfowl Refuge is. a group of 6 or 7 people spent the day in Reifel, while my sub-group of 5 more people went into the Alaksen wildlife management area right beside Reifel.
We started at dawn, at about 8am, and the sun came out from behind the clouds soon after. We had a wonderful day of stomping through the marshes and walking the dykes, searching for whatever birds we could find. I personally saw 53 species that day, and the whole ladner group saw 139 species in total (and Victoria set the canadian record last year with 154). For comparison, winnipeg sees about 30 species.
Some of the highlights of my day were the Barn Owls and Saw-whet Owls. Barn Owls are rather large…maybe the size of a big gull. Saw-whet Owls, on the other hand, are about the size of my hand. quite cute :). I also counted about 5000 snow geese (see 4 of them pictured above), which are spending the winter here before they fly back up to the remote islands off the coast of Russia for the breeding season in the spring.
Rough-legged hawk
I met all sorts of nice people, and had a blast. we all had a dinner afterwards where we could hear how the other teams did, and hear the highlights. I signed up right away to do the White Rock bird count on January 2nd (next monday). I can’t wait :)
Ride hard, ride free
December 29th, 2005 at 20:10 pm
Does everybody need to know how to identify species on these bird counts? I would love to go to something like that but i wouldn’t be able to identify anything :(
December 29th, 2005 at 22:16 pm
beginners came to the ladner one. it’s a great place to learn, with all
sorts of experienced birders around. I count myself as intermediate, and i learned tons.
White Rock & Surrey 02-Jan-06 Viveka Ohman
604-531-3401
there’s the contact information for the White Rock count next monday. If
you just call her and tell her that you’re an enthusiastic beginner, then
she can figure out a group to put you with. :)
also, there are other regular events to go to. There’s a group that meets at Terra Nova park in west Richmond at 8am on every 3rd saturday of the month, and they totally welcome beginners. Also, there’s a Boundary Bay group that does the same thing, but on the 1st saturday of the month at 8am. They meet at Cammidge House, near boundary bay park in Tsawwassen, just off 12th. Each of these groups go for a walk for a few hours, and have a variety of skill levels.
December 31st, 2005 at 00:30 am
Hi Pete, I think that I will take place in the Surrey/WR bird count on Jan 2nd. I will call Viveka. Thanks for letting me know about this…sounds like it will be fun…
Rick
January 2nd, 2006 at 20:27 pm
Hi Pete, helped out with the WR Bird count, there were three of us and we managed to see and document the following:
Four of us participated in a Christmas Bird Count today in White Rock, BC. Only managed 3-4 photos, but we had a great day (6 Hours) and saw and identified the following 55 species:
1.Red-Throated Loon
2.Common Loon
3.Pied-Billed Grebe
4.Horned Grebe
5.Eared Grebe
6.Red-Necked Grebe
7.Double Crested Cormorant
8.Great Blue Heron
9.Canada Goose
10.Green-Winged Teal
11.Mallard
12.Northern Pintail
13.American Wigeon
14.Eurasian Wigeon
15.Greater Scaup
16.Oldsquaw
17.Black Scoter
18.Surf Scoter
19.White-Winged Scoter
20.Common Goldeneye
21.Bufflehead
22.Common Merganser
23.Red-Breasted Merganser
24.Ruddy Duck
25.Bald Eagle
26.Black Turnstone
27.Sanderling
28.Mew Gull
29.Ring-Billed Gull
30.Western Gull
31.Glaucous-Winged Gull
32.Anna’s Hummingbird
33.Downy Woodpecker
34.Hairy Woodpecker
35.Pileated Woodpecker
36.Northern Flicker
37.Steller’s Jay
38.Black-Capped Chickadee
39.Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
40.Red-Breasted Nuthatch
41.Brown Creeper
42.Bewick’s Wren
43.Winter Wren
44.Golden-Crowned Kinglet
45.Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
46.American Robin
47.European Starling
48.Spotted Towhee
49.Fox Sparrow
50.White-Crowned Sparrow
51.Dark-Eyed Junco
52.Red-Winged Blackbird
53.Purple Finch
54.House Finch
55.House Sparrow
It was a great day thanks to my two count partners John & Hugh as well as Hugh’s grandson Parker. Thanks for showing me the ropes of a Christmas Bird Count ;-)
January 2nd, 2006 at 22:12 pm
ahhh, you were with the group that saw Anna’s Hummingbird, and all the long-tailed ducks (aka oldsquaw). We saw none of either, but we did see 140 Western Grebes near the pier.
i’ll write about it soon :)