The Creston Field Naturalists express their heartfelt appreciation to all of the hard working fielder and feeder watcher participants who helped count 12,214 birds in the 2011 Christmas Bird Count.
The 2011 count is truly a successful effort for our feathered friends, and a sizable increase over the 2010 count. The Creston Valley’s number and species count is not only the largest since the inception of the Creston bird count, but the latter by a phenomenal seven species.
Five of these were a contribution by feeder counters. We enjoy a special fielder/feeder collaboration in all our count areas, a co-operative effort that widens access to bird habitat choices and allows greater count accuracy.
2 snow goose (us)
4,290 Canada goose
799 mallard
11 ring-necked duck
1 lesser scaup
1 bufflehead (cw)
9 common goldeneye
11 Barrow's goldeneye
1 hooded merganser
6 common merganser
11 ring-necked pheasant
12 ruffed grouse
187 wild turkey
8 California quail
2 common loon
1 pied-billed grebe
9 great blue heron
1 turkey vulture (us)
25 bald eagle
2 northern harrier
1 sharp-shinned hawk
1 northern goshawk
36 red-tailed hawk
30 rough-legged hawk
1 golden eagle
21 American kestrel
2 merlin
1 killdeer (cw)
212 rock pigeon
80 Eurasian collared-dove
170 mourning dove
2 snowy owl
10 great horned owl
1 northern pygmy owl
1 barred owl
5 belted kingfisher
17 downy woodpecker
7 hairy woodpecker
2 three-toed woodpecker
174 northern flicker
12 pileated woodpecker
7 northern shrike
3 gray jay
20 Steller’s jay
5 blue jay
27 black-billed magpie
311 American crow
261 common raven
1 horned lark (cw)
598 black-capped chickadee
5 mountain chickadee
92 chestnut-backed chickadee
74 red-breasted nuthatch
1 white-breasted nuthatch
3 brown creeper
4 winter/Pacific wren
3 marsh wren
2 American dipper
16 golden-crowned kinglet
3 Townsend’s solitaire
23 American robin
1,507 European starling
364 Bohemian waxwing
6 cedar waxwing
1 American tree sparrow
27 song sparrow
1 white-crowned sparrow (us)
70 dark-eyed (Oregon) junco
49 dark-eyed (slate-coloured) junco
202 red-winged blackbird
1 Brewer’s blackbird
4 pine grosbeak
6 purple finch
14 Cassin’s finch
497 house finch
628 common redpoll
541 pine siskin
549 American goldfinch
15 evening grosbeak
106 house sparrow
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12,214 individuals counted
76 species reported
(cw) count week (three days prior and days after count day)
(us) unusual species (requires documentation and authorized consensus for final acceptance)
— CATHERINE PROWSE and SHARON LAUGHLIN (Creston Field Naturalists)