Bird Count Reports

by Kiron Giroux

The 2017 Saskatoon Nature Society fall bird count took place on Saturday, September 9th. It was a low count for participants with 33 people participating, lower than the average 42. With the low number of people, one of the regions did not have any coverage at all. There was a total of 141 different species reported, slightly lower than the average of 145. Even with the low participant and species counts, the number of individual birds was quite high, with 59,172 counted, the average being 45,367.

The high individual bird count is due almost entirely to the high number of snow geese reported. Snow Goose numbers reached an all time high count with a total of 26,087 individuals counted. Cackling Goose numbers also reached an all time high with 412 individuals counted.

Double-crested Cormorant numbers reached an all time high with 828 reported, surpassing the previous record of 481 in 2002 by a wide margin. There was a total of 15 species of warblers recorded, and a total of 501 individuals; a high number of species, but a low number of individuals. This is likely due in part to the low number of Yellow-rumped Warblers which had a total of 297 reported, less than half of the long-term average of 632. Some interesting species include a Cape May Warbler and a Black-throated Green Warbler.

Blackbird numbers were slightly above average this year, with a total of 4,164 individuals. Red-winged blackbirds reached an all time high of 1,356 individuals, surpassing the previous high of 721 in 2004.

If you take out the number of snow geese reported, the number of individual birds drops down to 33,085. When you take that total of individual birds counted, most of the other species recorded slightly below average, or right around average. Overall, a slightly below average count with not too many surprises.