St. Albert birders may encounter a whole parliament of owls this month during the city’s annual Christmas bird count.
St. Albert-area birdwatchers will beat the bushes and fixate on feeders this Dec. 27 for the 2024 St. Albert Christmas Bird Count. Now in its 34th year, this event sees hundreds of volunteers spend 24 hours enumerating and identifying every bird they can find in a 24-km zone centred on the old St. Albert Airport.
Prior to the 1900s, many hunters would participate in Christmas “side hunts,” where they would compete to see who could shoot the most birds, the National Audubon Society reports. In 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman proposed people count birds on Christmas instead of killing them, leading to the world’s first Christmas Bird Count.
The count is now the world’s longest-running citizen science project, with tens of thousands of people participating each December, said St. Albert count co-organizer James Fox.
Fox said he hoped to get about 70 people out to help with this year’s St. Albert count. Count participants will be assigned an area to patrol and asked to count and identify the maximum number of birds they can spot at any one time. Counters can stay indoors as feeder watchers or brave the snow as bush-beaters. Some will drive, ski, or bike their patrol routes; a few might even go out at night to find owls.
Fox encouraged count participants to bring binoculars, bird guides, and warm clothes.
“You don’t have to be an expert birder to help,” he said — novice counters can be paired with experts for assistance, and the Merlin Bird ID app can help identify birds based on sounds and images.
“The Christmas Bird Count is for everybody.”
Owls on prowl?
The hot topic for this year’s count may be owls, which St. Albert birdwatcher Percy Zalasky said appear to have flocked to this region in great numbers. Birders have reported sightings of snowy owls, great grey owls, short-eared owls, and even northern hawk owls in recent weeks.
“There’s just been a whole lot of owls,” he said.
Owls are typically the rarest of all species in the St. Albert count, likely because of their elusive and nocturnal nature. Just two northern hawk owls have been logged in the count’s history, with the last one spotted back in 1993.
The northern hawk owl is so named because it looks like a hawk in flight, Zalasky said. Typically found further north, one such owl was recently killed by traffic on Ray Gibbon Drive.
Zalasky said St. Albert birders have reported a lot of evening grosbeaks and crossbills at their feeders as of late, and a few overwintering robins. The waxwings have yet to show up in force, but should arrive later this winter, as unlike last year, there are plenty of berries for them to eat.
A veteran of the St. Albert count, Zalasky said it is always fun to get out and see what you can find on count day.
“It’s kind of like a treasure hunt. You never know what you’re going to find.”
Email [email protected] to register for the St. Albert count. Count results will be forwarded to Birds Canada for scientific research. Past count results are available at tabsoft.co/3iw0JLI.
