Biggest Christmas BIrd Count Ever

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Audobin Society has been holding Christmas Bird Counts across North America for the past 125 years. On Cortes Island it is co-sponsored by the Cortes Island Museum and Birds Canada. Thirty-nine walkers, cyclists, boaters, and people in cars participated in Cortes Islands 2024 Christmas Bird Count.

This was the third time that more than 4,000 birds have been counted since the islands first Christmas Bird Count in 2001. A new record was set: 4,545 Birds were listed.

Donna Collins explained, "We had more birders out, more areas covered and lots of birds counted."

 The most numerous species were 1,057 Surf Scoters.

There were also three unusual sightings. This is the first time Ring-billed gulls have been listed in a Christmas count. Laurel Bohart counted 32. Turkey vultures are not usually seen this time of year. One was seen during the week in 2014, but it did not make it into the official count. Sierra Sullivan saw a Turkey vulture this year.  Michael Sullivan saw three American coots.  
 
Laurel Bohart and Donna Collins agreed to describe their experience of the day.  

Laurel Bohart: "Donna showed up at my place in Squirrel Cove. I had already looked at the birds on my feeder, which were maybe 12 Juncos. We went directly to the dump  to check on birds there  and spotted 6 Ravens. Of course, they're always there when the dump is open because of food. Along with them, there were some wrens."  

Donna Collins: "We were having a hard time because we could hear them, but couldn't see them."

Laurel Bohart: "It's hard to see them because they were lurking in the bush. We spent some time just on the driveway, in and out of the Recycling Centre.  Unfortunately my binoculars aren't very good and her eyes are better than mine and sharper. So she was just describing what they might be. We had the bird book with us and were frantically looking through the pages."  

"We saw a whole cloud of Pine Siskins."  

Cortes Currents: Can either of you recognize the birds by their sounds?  

Laurel Bohart: "A Wren's like ‘chik chik, chik chik, chik chik, chiche, chik, chik, chiche, chik,  chik.’ That's the alarm call."  

"The other calls were more a mingled sound,  kind of a high pitched ‘we wi wi wi  wi  wi.’”  

Cortes Currents: What was that?

Laurel Bohart: "That would be birds higher up in the trees and no, I couldn't really tell which ones they were. I could hear them, although my hearing aid is not perfect."

"The  adventure came  first of all, when we went down to the waterfront by the Squirrel Cove store." 

"I have never seen so many gulls in my life. The gulls were Glaucus-winged Gulls mostly.  There was one Mew gull, one Bonaparte's and a bunch of Ring billed gulls,  all splashing very happily right around, right in the creek's mouth and making a great deal of noise."

"What was happening was the gush of water out of the Basil Creek estuary was fanning farther out into the ocean. Behind that fan, where all the birds were in front, there were sea lions or seals. We had a line of a couple dozen Bufflehead ducks cleaning their feathers in the fresh water. There were Goldeneye ducks, I think there was four. There was a whole line of Surf Scoters, at least a dozen."  

"What caught our attention was the crows between there and the Klahoose First Nation."

Cortes Currents: In the final tally it says you saw 89 crows. Do you have any explanation for that number?