St. Albert birders will have their eyes to the skies (and the trees, and the ground) later this month as the city’s annual bird count returns for the Christmas season.
Hundreds of amateur ornithologists will flock to St. Albert this Dec. 27 for the 32nd annual St. Albert Christmas Bird Count. This annual citizen science project will see birdwatchers stroll through forests and stake out bird feeders to try and count every bird they can find in a 24 km zone centred on the old St. Albert Airport.
Thousands of birdwatchers will take part in similar counts across North America this month, the data from which will help scientists track trends in bird populations, said St. Albert count co-ordinator James Fox.
“It’s one of the largest citizen science projects in the world,” he said of Christmas bird counts, and it’s been running for close to a century.
Fox said he hoped to get about 120 people involved in this year’s count, which would put the count back at its pre-pandemic participation numbers.
“Last year it was so brutally cold that our bush-beater numbers were horrendous,” he said, with just 10 people venturing outdoors to count birds.
While some bush-beaters roam the countryside for hours at a time, Fox said bush-beating can be as simple as going for a walk in a park and counting as you go. One participant last year did their count while skiing. Feeder watchers typically monitor birds at their feeders for 15 minutes in the morning and 15 in the afternoon.
Fox said no experience or equipment was needed to take part in the count, although a set of binoculars could help. Cell-phone cameras could help counters confirm the presence of rare species. Participants could be paired with veteran counters if they were fuzzy on their bird-identification skills.
Fox said he would be taking this year’s count results by email as the count’s website was no longer operational. Counters could also send in results through the eBird app. All results would be sent to Birds Canada for compilation.
“Quiet” count?
St. Albert bird count veteran Alan Hingston said this city has been pretty quiet for winter birds so far, with none of the crossbills, pine siskins, grosbeaks, and other irruptive species showing up in town as of yet.
“Although we would seem to have a very good food supply here, particularly in the case of cone crops, these birds just don’t seem to be here this year,” he said.
Hingston said many of these species could still show up by count day, as some may have decided to hunker down during the recent cold snap. (Irruptive species typically don’t head south to this region unless there’s a food shortage up north.)
“I just think this is going to be a quiet year.”
Fox said the reopening of the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park, which was closed last winter, could bring more woodpeckers to this year’s count. That ancient forest was often the only place in town where you could spot several species, such as the American three-toed and black-backed woodpeckers.
Hingston said he had spotted at least one snowy owl active in St. Albert in recent weeks, and hoped to see a barred owl on count day. Barred owls have flown through St. Albert before, but never on count day.
“Their eyes are all black,” Hingston said — not yellow, like most owls — and they have bars on their feathers.
Fox said the count itself was a fun way to get out and have some fun outdoors.
Email [email protected] for questions on the count.
