Species Numbers Stable For 2013 Spring Count

2013 Spring Count Participants

A brisk wind and dipping temperatures didn’t lower the species count or the enthusiasm for this year’s spring bird count.

Thirty hardy birdwatchers weathered the cold and spotted 70 species, including four red-throated loons, 27 Pacific loons, 156 least sandpipers, two American pippits, 42 horned grebes resplendent in breeding plumage, and 220 western sandpipers.

This measures up with last year’s species count of 69 and includes some new sightings for the spring count on Malcolm Island, namely a barred owl, two ring-billed gulls and a pair of white-winged crossbills.

The number of individuals was bumped up significantly from 1,727 last year to 2,654, thanks to 150 brant passing by the north shore and several hundred, likely lesser, Canada geese flying high overhead above the west side of Malcolm Island.

Count participants were happy to see a fairly high number of western sandpipers, as numbers for this species seem to be dropping and a study determining potential causes for the decline is currently underway.

Golden-crowned sparrows are still out in force, so gardeners should be cautious about planting anything that’s not nailed down or completely covered until these flying pigs leave the area to breed further north, usually some time around the May long weekend.

Somewhat alarming to count organizers was the absolute absence of swallows during this and last year’s count. While some of these aerial foragers were spotted around Sointula earlier this month, including a pair of violet-green swallows near the post office, their numbers have definitely declined in recent years.

On the bright side, varied thrushes and American robins abound, along with Townsend’s warblers and rufous hummingbirds.

Thanks to our Comox birders for your ongoing help with bird identification and to everyone for your participation in the count and wonderful contributions to the Sunday potluck!

The winners of this year’s ‘Newly Nested and Barely Invested’ contest were our very own Malcolm Island Bird Club members Jake and Yvonne Etzkorn, who took home a silver anniversary wedding album to tuck away in a drawer for future use.

For a copy of the full results of the count contact  akoch@ketacable.net

Brave birders in Rough Bay

Region 23 Meets Breeding Bird Atlas Targets!

Region 23 Meets Breeding Bird Atlas Targets!

It took five years but, thanks to the dedicated efforts of numerous volunteer atlassers, Region 23 of the B.C. Breeding Bird Atlas met the 5% of squares coverage target set by atlas organizers. The map below shows the area coverage where 20 or more atlassing hours were invested (in red) or ten or more atlassing hours were invested (in orange). Overall average number of species per square was 40.

Special thanks to region 23 co-coordinator Art Martell for all of your atlassing hours and point counts, and to Judith King for travelling from Ontario and Sharon Godkin for coming up from Victoria to help us out with atlassing observations and point counts.

Map showing Region 23 squares completed

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

News Flash From The Sointula Ripple!

Things are lining up nicely for the 13th annual Doug Innes Memorial Spring Bird Count here on Malcolm Island this weekend – we can only hope that dipping temperatures and periods of rain don’t dampen our chances of seeing all manner of warblers, widgeons and, according to a recent news article in the Ripple, a lark sparrow!

This rare North Island visitor was spotted at a feeder in Port Alice in mid February and has apparently been heard  and possibly sighted recently on Malcolm Island.

Lark Sparrow spotted in Port Alice

For those of you who haven’t already decided to do so, please join us on Saturday, April 27th for a series of afternoon workshops and then again on Sunday, April 28th at 9 am for the 13th annual spring bird count. For details on the bird count weekend, check out http://sointularipple.ca/2013/04/big-weekend-coming-up/

For further information, contact annie at akoch@ketacable.net