Remembering a cold, frosty bird count

Yesterday, 29 February 2016 (Leap Year!), the weather reminded me of our annual Audubon High River Christmas Bird Count, back on 15 December 2015. Yesterday was foggy, frosty and with treacherous roads. Thankfully, I didn't have to go out anywhere.

On 15 December 2015, I went with a group of 7 friends to take part in the first annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count of the season. This is one of my favourite counts, mainly because our small group covers one of my favourite areas, SE of the city. Other birders covered the rest of the large count circle around the town of High River, SE of Calgary, roughly half an hour's drive from the southern edge of Calgary. Our group was limited to just two carloads of people. When there is a convoy of vehicles, everything takes much longer, and on an important count day, time is of the essence.

We met in the city at 7:15 am and drove southwards into fog - dense fog! This is not what people hope for when out looking for birds, ha. The temperature was around -12C (so I'm guessing the windchill was somewhere around -18C) when we set out, warming to 1C later on. Everywhere was covered in beautiful hoar frost, which lasted a good part of the day. Just the same weather as when we did this count in December 2014. As you can see from this photo, taken at the outlet at Frank Lake where there was a bit of open water, it was cold but beautiful. I always hope for a hoar frost for this count, though because the light was so bad, most of my photos are rather grainy or just too blurred to post. The sun came up when we were standing at this spot and for just a few brief seconds, it was reflected in the bit of open water. So beautiful.

After our very first stop here, we then drove the various backroads around and near Frank Lake, calling in at several farms to ask permission to look around their farmyards, hoping to find a different species to add to our list. I will add our leader's final list below - not a great number of species, but a few nice ones, including two very, very distant Snowy Owls.

"Frank Lake CBC, SE quadrant, S of Hwy 23, E of Hwy 2. 0800-1645, Tue, 15 Dec. 2015. Clear sky, but heavy ground fog obscured viewing of open water at Frank Lake, and coated vegetation with hoarfrost, which lasted most of the day. W. wind, up to 15kph. -12 to 01°C. No snow on ground (just hoarfrost), streams partly open.

Km by Car-110:, Km on foot; 3; Time by car – 7 hr; Time on foot -1:45 min.

Totals are all in IBA (in bird area), unless specified Off IBA. IBA territory was East of 152 St, S to 594 Av; then E to 168 St, then S to 626 Av.

Canada Goose-80
Gadwall-1 m
Green-winged Teal-1 f.
Lesser Scaup-1 m.
Bald Eagle-1 ad, flying S at 1445 over Davey Jones’ place..
Killdeer -3
Rock Pigeon-9 on N. side #23 // 30 on IBA terr. // 3 Off IBA
Great Horned Owl-8 (4 in Harley Sutherland’s yard).
Snowy Owl-2
Black-billed Magpie-17 // 31 Off IBA.
Common Raven-13 // 8 Off IBA
Horned Lark?? – 10, seen flying low, by Jim St. L
European Starling-1 on N side #23 // 26.
American Tree Sparrow- 12
Song Sparrow?? – 1 (seen three times near outfall, but in heavy fog).
Common Redpoll- 155 // 87 Off IBA
House Sparrow- 128 // 77 Off IBA

Reported seen by Mr/Mrs Gordon Fraser, Off IBA, in Little Bow River valley, today: Ring-necked Pheasant-1; Northern Flicker-1. (Also photographed Long-tailed Weasel-1).

Coyote- 1 on ice of Frank Lake
Deer sp.-3
Mule Deer -7, off S. Side of CBC Terr."

Of course, as always happens on any trip, I just had to take photos of anything else that caught my eye, including barns, scenery, and so on.

We had finished our count by around 4:30 pm, by which time it was completely dark. Some of us stayed for the delicious pot luck supper, mainly provided by the generous birding people down in High River. Thanks to everyone who got this ready for us - delicious and hugely appreciated!

A special thanks to Greg Wagner who always organizes this count. He is a truly dedicated birder, who puts in so much time searching for and recording what birds are being seen in that whole area.

Thanks, too, to Lorrie and John who drove two of us for the whole day. Can't thank you enough for making it possible for me to do this count. A lot of driving for you and it was greatly appreciated. It was great when we saw our 9th Great Horned Owl along H'way 23, just E of Hway 2, on our way home.

I was lucky enough to get my name called in a draw and was given a copy of Myrna Pearman's beautiful new book: "Backyard Bird Feeding: an Alberta Guide". This complete guide to year-round bird feeding in Alberta is beautifully laid out with so many great photos and masses of information. A delightful book! Thank you, Russ Amy, for donating this copy specially for the draw! I also bought a copy to give to friends when I next see them.

www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/store/p1/BACKYARD_BIRD_FEEDING%3A_An...