Christmas count gears up
Ornithologists are prepping their lists this week as they gear up for the annual Christmas bird count.
City residents will beat the bounds in St. Albert later this month as part of the 21st annual St. Albert Christmas Bird Count. The counts are part of a national effort by Bird Studies Canada to track bird populations.
Count co-ordinator Alan Hingston says he's looking for about 150 volunteers to either prowl the countryside or watch bird feeders this Dec. 27. Each will patrol part of a 24-kilometre zone centred on the St. Albert Airport, take note of the type and number of birds they spot and report their results to one of six zone captains.
Returning as one of those captains is naturalist Dan Stoker, who says he's been doing the St. Albert count for about 20 years. "I am a science-type of guy," he explains, and studies like these gather valuable information.
Hingston says he had yet to spot any unusual birds that might stick around for the survey, but has seen the return of an old favourite: the pine grosbeak. Absent for the first time in count history last year, these big, occasionally red finches have once again flocked in force to St. Albert.
"If you hear a pleasant sounding musical song coming from a wood," he says, "there's a good chance it's a pine grosbeak."
Stoker says he spotted an American crow recently, as well as a mallard paddling around the Children's Bridge. Although common at other times of the year, both of these birds are rare sights during the Christmas count.
Spotters have noticed some snowy owls in the region, Hingston says, and he hopes more will show up for the count. Bohemian waxwings should arrive en masse around this time of year, he notes, as they strip bare the county's berry trees and move onto the ones in the city. They tend to get drunk on the berries too, so expect a few to blunder into your windows.
Feeder watchers should start putting out suet and sunflower seeds now if they want to attract colourful birds like the pileated woodpecker on count day, Stoker says. "Once they find a restaurant, they usually come back for more."
Call Hingston at 780-459-6389 for more on the St. Albert count.
