The Sunshine Coast Natural History Society will be conducting their 37th annual Christmas bird count (CBC) on Saturday, Dec. 19. The 25th Pender Harbour count, organized by the Pender Harbour Wildlife Society, is on Wednesday, Dec. 16. I will report details from the two counts in my next column.
The first Christmas bird count was held on Christmas Day 1900 when Frank Chapman organized 25 of his friends to spend a day in the field censusing birds as a statement against his abhorrence of the prevailing “sidehunt” where shooting parties went forth and shot any living thing, and the team with the most dead bodies at the end of the day was declared the winner. The Christmas bird count in the U.S. is organized by the Audubon Society and in Canada by Bird Studies Canada. This year will be the 116th CBC; it is often referred to as the world’s oldest citizen-science project. Last year, 2,462 counts were conducted all over North America and an increasing number in Central and South America; over 72,000 people participated, counting over 69-million birds. The long-term database provides a trove of information concerning the populations of mid-winter birds in the New World.
Each count takes place on one day during the Christmas period and is conducted within the same circle 24 kilometres in diameter. The Sunshine Coast circle is centred in Roberts Creek and covers the area from Port Mellon to West Sechelt. Most years the Sunshine Coast count records a species total in the 90s, with a highest ever total of 105 species in 2009. Pender Harbour generally reports 75 to 85 species with a high of 87 in 1993. Last year the Yanayacu count in Ecuador reported 529 species within their count circle, an indication of the breathtaking degree of biodiversity in the tropical world. Some counts in Arctic Canada find only one or two species, usually ravens.
Anna’s hummingbird first appeared in our area in the 1970s and is now a well-established year-round resident, thriving in all settled areas of the Sunshine Coast where there are gardens and hummingbird feeders. I have been tracking the population of Anna’s hummingbirds on the Sunshine Coast so if you have any of these birds at your feeder or garden, please email me and I will include them in the count. Last year we recorded over 200 Anna’s hummingbirds. Also, please contact me if you see any unusual or unidentified birds at your feeder or elsewhere. I can be contacted at [email protected] or 604-885-5539.
Good birding.
