Some Yorkton residents had their eyes on the skies this Christmas. Each year, they participate in the Christmas bird count with the Audobon Society, part of an international effort to get an idea about the migration and movement of birds in North America.
While the same number of species were spotted on the day of the count, 17, the actual number of birds was down significantly, 927 in 2015 versus 1,233 in 2014. Geoff Rushowick, who organized the count, says that the mild winter was likely a factor in the lower numbers, as many northern birds lack incentive to migrate.
One of the species with a big drop is the house sparrows, down to 245 from 349. Rushowick says that this could be due to a disease affecting the species, and he has had many counters who commonly see sparrows report very few to none in their count.
Other species which have seen declines in numbers reported were rock pigeons, down to 163 from 234, and common ravens, down to 198 from 349 in 2014.
Sometimes species counts can change due to people moving around in town. Eurasian doves have been decreasing in the area, down to two this year. One of the reasons why they had been easy to spot was an older woman who fed them, Rushowick explains. When she sold her home, the new owners did not feed the doves, and they moved on.
Not everything went down. The black capped chickadee saw a big increase, 136 in 2015 from 46 in 2014. Nuthatches also had a good year, with 19 red-breasted nuthatches and 20 white-breasted nuthatches, up from one and eight in 2014 respectively. There were also rare sightings, such as a bald eagle.
The goal of the count is to get information from across the continent to see what birds are doing and track trends in bird movement.
“You look ten years ago to now, if there are different species... Are certain species moving east to west, west to east or north to south?”
Since starting with the local bird count over 20 years ago, Rushowick says that the big change in the city are the ravens, which have increased dramatically over the past number of years. While there used to be a large number of crows in the city, after they were driven off the ravens have moved in. While the numbers are down, Rushowick says they are also moving into the city rather than mostly congregating at the city dump. He also speculates that they might be scaring away and attacking other birds.
Rushowick wants to thank the volunteers who help with the count. Unlike the birds themselves, the number of volunteers counting were up, and he says that they are what makes the count work year after year.
“Without the volunteers this count would be nothing.”
