january 4, 1978 , Wilma Robinson maple ridge gazette, christmas bird count

By W. ROBINSON    January 4, 1978

We had a beautiful day for our Christmas Bird Count last week – clear and cold most of the day, although some areas had brief morning fog to dampen spirits for a while. The still, cold conditions kept a number of the smaller birds from venturing forth to be counted, at least in my own count area. The result was that, while the species numbers were the same as last year – 100 different bird species – the numbers of individuals decreased from almost 47,000 to about 16,000.

Although not all the counts are in yet, there are several new species added to our Christmas list. One of these was the recording of two Anna's hummingbirds, thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Gillette of Pitt Meadows who have been hosts to a pair of these birds for the last two years. If we had known the Gillettes last year, we could have had the hummers recorded in our 1976 count. The birds couldn't have picked a better yard to winter in. Mr. Gillette has fixed up a box under his porch roof, puta light bulb in it to keep the feeder from freezing and the birds come there to dine in style. When it's not freezing, they can drink at another feeder further out under the wide eaves. This is the first pair of Anna's hummingbirds, to my knowledge, recorded wintering in Pitt Meadows.

Another rarity on this year's count was a white-winged crossbill, sighted by Mr. JackWilliams in the S.W. Coquitlam count area. Our owls were down this year, with only the great horned and the short-eared owls making an appearance. The pygmy, barn, screech and saw-whet owls kept themselves hidden that day. Even the pileated woodpecker which visits our backyard all winter, failed to turn up for the count. However, we did get tree sparrows, a Swainson's hawk, some gray-crowned rosy finches (beside the post office in Haney), mountain chickadees, a spotted sandpiper (rare here in winter) and one Virginia rail, also rare here in winter. 40 red-tailed hawks (60 last year), 44 marsh hawks, 25 rough-legged hawks, 1 peregrine falcon, 2 kestrels, 1 golden eagle and 4 bald eagles made up the raptor population. The Canada goose sightings were up from 470 last year to 1,168 this year. I imagine there would have been a few more geese if it had not been for a couple of hunters who let loose a volley of shots under cover of a large fog bank on the Pitt River and sent a flock of more than 100 frightened Canada,s fleeing down river away from the guns. Several lone shots minutes later seemed to indicate that they were finishing off the wounded ones. When the fog lifted and the hunters became aware of us watching, they quickly started their motor and went off down river. The season for Canada geese will not open until next year. Not all hunters are Sportsmen. Apart from that one instance, we had a very enjoyable day and we would like to thank all those who took part in the count. When all the records have been compiled, we will try  a copy of the count results to each participant.

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