Last year we had a trial Luther Marsh bird count. Birds Canada approved our application for a new circle, and we had the first official Luther Marsh Christmas Bird Count on Thursday December 18. Eighteen birders in six teams participated. The weather forecast was for a high of 5 degrees (after weeks of bitter cold); what we didn’t expect was the biting wind, up to 45 km/hour.
The birders clocked 31 hours, drove 415.5 km and walked 5.2km. In total we had 33 species and 1,962 birds. As yet we don’t have any bird feeder watches.
Highlights included many small flocks of Snow Buntings, 60 Cedar Waxwings, 82 Bohemian Waxwings, 45 Common Redpolls, some Pine Grosbeaks, one Evening Grosbeak and a bird feeder by the road that had 100 Goldfinch (and little else).
Russ McGillivray
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