The binoculars and spotting scopes were out in full force for Creston's 26th annual Christmas Bird Count.
On Dec. 27, a beautiful day of sunshine, 30 birders walked and drove around the designated count area, and even more people volunteered to watch from their windows and count how many feathery friends came to their bird feeders.
The annual count is one of North America’s longest-running citizen science projects, offering valuable long-term insight into trends in bird populations. The program is overseen by Birds Canada and the results help to inform the federal government’s annual State of Canada’s Birds report. The report suggests the main threats to birds are habitat loss, climate change, outdoor cats, window collisions, and pollution.
In Creston, a total of 75 species were counted, a slight increase from 66 last year. Not surprisingly, Canada geese were the most plentiful with 1,540 birds, followed by two invasive species - 1,147 European starlings and 888 Eurasian collared doves.
Over the years, a few owl species have been found in the valley during the Christmas Bird Counts including the western screech owl, great horned owl, snowy owl, northern pygmy owl, long-eared owl, northern saw-whet owl, and barn owl. This year’s most exciting find was the great grey owl.
"It is the first time this species has ever been recorded on a count day," said Ulrike Sliworsky, Creston Christmas Bird Count co-ordinator. "It is a very rare winter visitor to our valley and the interior of BC. Due to the sensitivity of this species with hopes of reporting breeding success, the location of these owls should not be shared."
With the open waters of Duck Lake and Kootenay Lake, the Kuskanook Circle Count held on Jan. 3 added 15 more species to the list including the common loon, Pacific loon, tundra swan, American coot, pied-billed grebe, horned grebe, red-necked grebe, western grebe, gadwall, green-winged teal, ring-billed gull, herring gull, short-eared owl, snow bunting, and Clark’s nutcracker.
"Since there are 90 species of winter birds out there to find, it is a great excuse to get outdoors into our beautiful wilderness," said Sliworsky.
Avid birders can look forward to Creston's annual Bird Festival, held this upcoming spring from May 9 to 12. Visit wildsight.ca/branches/creston-valley/birdfest or the Creston Valley Birds Facebook page for more information.
