Chilliwack CBC areas 5 and 8 (Dec 17)
Dec 29, 2022 18:32:47 GMT -8
Wetlander, Chris, and 5 more like this
Post by Ben on Dec 29, 2022 18:32:47 GMT -8
For the Christmas bird count in Chilliwack we (me, Jon, Jamie, Jonah, and Bentley) did areas 5 and 8, though only myself and Jon for the whole day. Areas 5 and 8 consist of Fairfield Island and a section of East Chilliwack.
We started early, meeting up at 6:30 am to go try for some owls.
Checked camp river wildlife area -- nothing. Checked little mountain by the lions club -- nothing. Checked by the section of forest south of hope river -- nothing. Checked on top of little mountain -- finally we had a Great Horned Owl fly in to see what we were up to. We then zipped around the prairie to look for a short-eared or barn owl. We managed to snag a Short-eared on gibson road.
Not a bad start to the day.
We went back to our section of fairfield to meet up with some more members of our group (the late risers), but they didn't make it so we kept going. Heading down to Jesperson Dike I walked through the forest path and got a Northern Shrike - not too shabby. Then down the dike while Jon drove the car to the other end. Within 15 minutes I called him back as I'd found a Black Pheobe! Surprisingly the second one that we've had on the bird count (there was one in 2013). We got some good looks at the bird but neglected to take a useful picture.
At the other end of the dike there was a male Ring-necked Pheasant in the frozen over slough. A first for me in the area. eBird apparently says they are escapees, which is probable but ....
The rest of the day consisted of mediocre weather with lots of "No <insert bird name>", and a correction by Jamie to add a "yet" at the end.
We were lamenting the lack of hawks -- until about 11am we hadn't had a single red-tail, rough-leg, cooper's, or sharpie, though we were doing well for falcons with a Merlin and a few Kestrels. Anyways, we did manage a Red-tail or 3 and 3 Cooper's hawks by the end of the day.
In total we had:
63 Species
6,735 Individuals
8.75 Hours of birding
135 Kilometers travelled
Other notable things:
* Goldfinches were everywhere while normally a hard bird to come by (20!)
* 169 Eurasian Collared-Doves (and only 167 Crows)
* 16 Savannah Sparrows in East Chilliwack
Some notable misses:
* Gyrfalcon -- given our track record on the CBC we were maybe a bit optimistic
* Brown Creeper
* Barn Owl
* Pied-billed Grebe
* Gadwall
* Hairy Woodpecker
We started early, meeting up at 6:30 am to go try for some owls.
Checked camp river wildlife area -- nothing. Checked little mountain by the lions club -- nothing. Checked by the section of forest south of hope river -- nothing. Checked on top of little mountain -- finally we had a Great Horned Owl fly in to see what we were up to. We then zipped around the prairie to look for a short-eared or barn owl. We managed to snag a Short-eared on gibson road.
Not a bad start to the day.
We went back to our section of fairfield to meet up with some more members of our group (the late risers), but they didn't make it so we kept going. Heading down to Jesperson Dike I walked through the forest path and got a Northern Shrike - not too shabby. Then down the dike while Jon drove the car to the other end. Within 15 minutes I called him back as I'd found a Black Pheobe! Surprisingly the second one that we've had on the bird count (there was one in 2013). We got some good looks at the bird but neglected to take a useful picture.
At the other end of the dike there was a male Ring-necked Pheasant in the frozen over slough. A first for me in the area. eBird apparently says they are escapees, which is probable but ....
The rest of the day consisted of mediocre weather with lots of "No <insert bird name>", and a correction by Jamie to add a "yet" at the end.
We were lamenting the lack of hawks -- until about 11am we hadn't had a single red-tail, rough-leg, cooper's, or sharpie, though we were doing well for falcons with a Merlin and a few Kestrels. Anyways, we did manage a Red-tail or 3 and 3 Cooper's hawks by the end of the day.
In total we had:
63 Species
6,735 Individuals
8.75 Hours of birding
135 Kilometers travelled
Other notable things:
* Goldfinches were everywhere while normally a hard bird to come by (20!)
* 169 Eurasian Collared-Doves (and only 167 Crows)
* 16 Savannah Sparrows in East Chilliwack
Some notable misses:
* Gyrfalcon -- given our track record on the CBC we were maybe a bit optimistic
* Brown Creeper
* Barn Owl
* Pied-billed Grebe
* Gadwall
* Hairy Woodpecker