A bird with a yellow butt gave St. Albert birders a Boxing Day surprise last month during the city’s annual Christmas bird count.
Count organizers James Fox and Dave Cleary released the results of the 30th annual St. Albert Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 30.
The count, held Dec. 26 (Boxing Day), saw 106 people scout fields, forests,and feeders throughout the St. Albert region in search of birds to count and identify.
Fox said this year’s St. Albert count was the first to happen during a global pandemic, and organizers weren’t sure how many people would participate in it, especially since Birds Canada had discouraged organizers from recruiting new counters this winter.
“It was a shock to us how many birders participated,” he said, noting turnout was actually pretty close to the count’s average of 120ish.
Fox said he was impressed by the effort some people put into the count – some walked for 10 or more kilometres, while others had their eyes glued to their backyard feeders for eight hours.
One (two?) new species
The star of this year’s count was the female or juvenile yellow-rumped warbler that showed up in Grandin on count day, Fox said. Known for its bright yellow rump and yellow sides, this sparrow-sized singer has never been seen before in the St. Albert Christmas count. Fox said Edmonton counters also spotted what was likely their first yellow-rumped warbler during that city’s count on Dec. 20.
“It is very unusual that you’d see this bird anywhere in the Edmonton area in the winter,” Fox said, adding he could not recall ever spotting one during a winter count in his decades as a birder.
Grandin resident Michelle Palmer spotted the bird, which has been frequenting her front yard for about a month. A veteran birder, she said she immediately knew the bird was not one of this city’s typical winter residents when it turned up at her suet feeder.
“When I saw yellow on it, I thought, ‘Oh!’” she said, adding she was very excited by her find.
The yellow-rumped warbler is one of this region’s most common warblers and one of the first to return in the spring, typically arriving in the second week of May, said Lu Carbyn, former co-owner of Edmonton’s Wildbird General Store. It’s about the size of a finch and frequents aspens and conifers, unlike the all-yellow yellow warbler, which prefers willows. Carbyn said yellow-rumped warblers normally head to central and South America during the winter; a mild winter and plentiful food might have convinced this one to stay here.
Another odd bird spotted during count week, but not on count day, was the Lapland longspur – a bird that has yet to be observed during the St. Albert count.
“They’re a very hardy bird that can withstand the cold,” Fox said, and show up occasionally around Edmonton during the winter.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the Lapland longspur as a “small, streaky thing” that is common but “remarkably easy to overlook.” The bird gets its name from its really long hind claw and the Lapland region of Scandinavia. While most North Americans know the Lapland longspur as a sparrow-sized and sparrow-coloured bird, those who witness it on its Arctic breeding grounds would see its resplendent breeding plumage, which features a bold black crown, face and bib, and a rusty brown nape.
St. Albert counters also spotted a record number of downy and pileated woodpeckers on Dec. 26. Count records suggest these birds have become slightly more common in the St. Albert count since 1990.
While the pileated woodpecker is easy to identify (black and white, red crest, huge), the downy and the hairy could be tough to tell apart, Fox said. (The hairy is bigger.) Set out suet if you want to see woodpeckers in your yard.
Fox said he would send St. Albert’s count results to Birds Canada, where researchers would use it to study trends in bird populations. St. Albert’s next major birding event would be this February’s Great Backyard Bird Count.
Visit tabsoft.co/3pRrbx8 for an interactive chart of this year’s count results.
