by Jim Hawkings

Well, that was a very pleasant Whitehorse Christmas Bird Count on Boxing Day – with weather very similar to last year count.  It turned out to be one of the warmest days of December – but just a tad on the windy side!   In spite of the balmy weather, and above-average temperatures in December, it should be noted that November was NOT above average – in fact it was almost as cold as December…and we had tons of snow by late October!  We had a record high 57 participants, including a handful of visiting birders here for the holidays.  Our species total of 26 was pretty much bang-on the average of 25.4 over the past 25 years.  We often think we should have all kinds of weird birds here when we have relatively mild weather, but the only somewhat unusual species was 11 Snow Buntings found on a grassy slope near Ear Lake – only the third year they have been seen on the Whitehorse CBC.  Instead of unusual species, it seems we get more individuals of the species that are just at the northern edge of their wintering range: We had high counts for Mallard (135), Northern Shrike (2), American Crow (12), Red Breasted Nuthatch (29).  All four of these have become more regular in recent years.  The Crows this year were double the previous high count, and they were found primarily along the Millenium Trail between the Robert Campbell Bridge and the Rotary Centennial Bridge (it was actually a bit tricky to count them as they seemed to be flying all over the place!), whereas in previous years they have been mostly found downtown and in the Shipyards Park area. And the Red-breasted Nuthatches have gone crazy – the previous high count was 9 in 2023!  We continue to be awash in Bald Eagles with the second highest count ever (92) – and they were literally seen everywhere, by 13 different parties. We also had a second consecutive high count (176) for Red Crossbills, which are one of several irruptive finches whose numbers fluctuate wildly from year to year.  Bohemian Waxwings continue their boom/bust pattern.  After a poor berry crop and a dismal Christmas count of Waxwings (21) last year, there was an enormous crop of berries this year around town. But it seems we still only had a modest number of Waxwings in Whitehorse during November and December, including on the Christmas Count (610 – compared to over 4000 in 2022).  Those that were here had no shortage of food – on my Boxing Day travels around Riverdale I saw many, many berry trees that seemed to be virtually untouched!  There were some close-calls for common species:  Spruce Grouse, American Robin, and all three woodpecker species on the count were only represented by 1 individual each!  Oh, and several exciting species turned up in Whitehorse after count day, just outside the 3-day “count week” window:  A Sharp-shinned Hawk was in Porter Creek on 30 December, a Spotted Towhee appeared in Riverdale on 2 January, and a Northern Hawk Owl was on the Whitehorse Nordic Centre trails on 5 January.  All in all a very enjoyable and successful count. Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate!

Here’s the final bird list:

• Mallard 135
• Common Goldeneye 3
• Common Merganser 3
• Spruce Grouse 2
• Bald Eagle 92
• Downy Woodpecker 1
• Hairy Woodpecker 1
• American Three-toed Woodpecker 1
• Northern Shrike 2
• Canada Jay 10
• Black-billed Magpie 132
• American Crow 12
• Common Raven 1594
• Black-capped Chickadee 109
• Mountain Chickadee 3
• Boreal Chickadee 70
• Red-breasted Nuthatch 29
• American Dipper 11
• American Robin 1
• Bohemian Waxwing 610
• Snow Bunting 11
• Pine Grosbeak 107
• Red Crossbill 176
• White-winged Crossbill 165
• crossbill sp. 7
• Common Redpoll 18
• Common/Hoary Redpoll 93
• House Sparrow 78

Total Individuals 3470

Total Species Reported 26

 

---

Participants:

Grant Abbott
Lauren Alford
Tracy Allard
Aaron Barker
Diane Brent
Laurie Brochu
Syd Cannings
Hayleigh Conway
Maureen Conway
Paul Davis
Marianne Douglas
Cameron Eckert
Ashwin Freyne
Linda Gerrand
Jim Gilpin
Marcella Grottoli
Jim Hawkings
Jane Haydock
Melody Hazel
Jurg Hofer
Ed Jenni
Knute Johnsguaard
Cathy Koot
Maria Leung
Helen Liskova
Bonnie Love
Erica Dee Mah
Elias Mah-McCord
Zoe Mah-McCord
Elise Maltinsky
Luka Marjanovic
Marko Marjanovic
Meghan Marjanovic
Laura Markle
Marina McCready
Bill McCord
Darcy McCord
Dorothy McCord
John Meikle
Pete Mickelson
Marty Mossop
Wendy Nixon
Alex Oberg
Heidi Reaume
Rick Reaume
Clara Reid
Don Reid
Gemma Richardson
Bob Sagar
Nahanni Sagar
Pam Sinclair
Becky Striegler
Prachi Thatte
Jim Tredger
Hilary Wilkinson
Keith Williams
Ruishen Zhan

 

Here’s a complete report with more details:
2024-YTWHCountSummary

(For more information about Yukon Christmas Bird Counts see this page on our website: https://yukonbirds.ca/yukon-christmas-bird-counts/)

The 2023 Whitehorse Christmas Bird Count was both remarkable and rather ordinary. The weather was remarkably warm, as it has been all fall and for most of the past year – a sign of things to come no doubt. December 2023 was a full 10 degrees C warmer than December 2022. There was very little snow on the ground and plenty of open water. Together, these conditions should make life relatively easy for our resident birds – no pressing need to mob feeders during the day in order to survive the long cold nights.

It’s been easy for people too – 46 observers ventured out all over Whitehorse on Boxing Day to count in the balmy weather (temperatures right around freezing) and 12 watched their feeders.

When reports trickled in from all the observers, 3,047 birds of 25 species had been recorded.  Over the years the number of species has ranged from 18 to 33, but the average is 25.  Common Raven was the most numerous bird (no surprise…), followed by Common Redpoll, Pine Grosbeak, and House Sparrow in a very tight race for 2nd place. Strangely, there were no unusual birds found this year, save for a young Golden Eagle found at the landfill by Cameron Eckert and Lena Ware. We had expected all kinds of migrants to hang around to enjoy this weather and easy access to food. But there were no lingering juncos, sparrows, or American Robins to be found. One lonely merganser was the only duck on the Yukon River.

There were also remarkably few Bohemian Waxwings (21 – compare this to 4,023 last year!), likely a result of our warm, dry summer which led to a miserable crop of their favorite winter food – berries.

Bald Eagles, on the other hand, were flying around everywhere this year, including a pair checking out their(?) nest on the bluff along Robert Service Way.  We had 89 in total, our second highest count ever.

Some of our regular winter residents were found in close to record numbers: Red Crossbills were found in many parts of town, enjoying the offerings at feeders, as were Canada Jays, Black-capped Chickadees, and House Sparrows.

Here’s the final bird list:

1. Mallard 70
2. Common Merganser 1
3. Ruffed Grouse 1
4. Spruce Grouse 1
5. Golden Eagle 1
6. Bald Eagle 89
7. Downy Woodpecker 2
8. Hairy Woodpecker 2
9. American Three-toed Woodpecker 2
10. Canada Jay 27
11. Black-billed Magpie 109
12. American Crow 3
13. Common Raven 1693
14. Black-capped Chickadee 147
15. Mountain Chickadee 1
16. Boreal Chickadee 47
17. Red-breasted Nuthatch 7
18. American Dipper 9
19. Bohemian Waxwing 21
20. Pine Grosbeak 206
21. Red Crossbill 147
22. White-winged Crossbill 33
23. crossbill sp. 7
24. Common Redpoll 213
25. Hoary Redpoll 1
26. House Sparrow 205

---

Total Individuals 3047

Total Species Reported 25

My sincere thanks to everone who took part in this year’s Whitehorse count. Looking forward to next year….

---

Participants:

Mackenzie Alain, Edward Allen, Tracy Allard, Aaron Baker, Bruce Bennett, Selena Boothroyd, Diane Brent, Laurie Brochu, Syd Cannings, Paul Davis, Loreena Dobson, Gabrielle Dupont, Cameron Eckert, Rob Florkiewicz, Trish Fontaine, Sam Gallagher, Jim Hawkings, Jane Haydock, Melody Hazel, Ed Jenni, Matt Kitchen, Cathy Koot, Greg Kubica, Lee Kubica, Pia Kukka, Maria Leung, Mary Ann Lewis, Rob Lewis, Bonnie Love, Elise Maltinsky, Meghan Marjanovic, Marina McCready, Karen McKenna, John Meikle, Valery Monahan, Dave Mossop, Marty Mossop, Randi Mulder, Wendy Nixon, Alex Oberg, Adam Perrier, Bec Reh, Don Reid, Gemma Richardson, Bob Sagar, Barbara Scheck, Becky Striegler, Jenny Trapnell, Lena Ware, Keith Williams, Scott Williams, Tegryn Williams, Mabel Wong

Here’s a complete report with more details:
WhitehorseCBC2023CountSummary

The 2022 Whitehorse Christmas Bird Count was very successful in spite of the weather being a tad windy and cold. There were 44 participants, including 28 different parties and 11 feeder-watchers. All told, participants counted 6,822 birds of 28 species — compared with 4,162 birds of 24 species last year (the long-term average is 25 species). After a very warm fall season, the Boxing Day count was preceded by a week of brutal cold, including 20 December when the mercury dropped to -42.1 C and topped out at -36.1. Quite a few oddball birds that normally winter south of here were hanging around prior to that and there was considerable speculation about their ability to survive that kind of deep freeze. However, on count day we discovered a lot of them had done pretty well: We had all-time high counts for 9 species (American Wigeon, Common Goldeneye, American Crow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Bohemian Waxwing, American Tree Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, White-Crowned Sparrow, and Purple Finch). People were delighted to have thousands of Bohemian Waxwings around through the Christmas holidays — quite a contrast to last year’s count when we were totally stumped! Not only were we awash in Bohemian Waxwings (almost double the previous record of 2,033 set in 2016), but for the first time ever they outnumbered our perennial winter resident Common Ravens! Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s count!

Here’s the list:

1. American Wigeon 1
2. Mallard 63
3. Common Goldeneye 5
4. Common Merganser 1
5. Spruce Grouse 3
6. Northern Goshawk 1
7. Bald Eagle 51
8. Downy Woodpecker 6
9. Hairy Woodpecker 6
10. Canada Jay 11
11. Black-billed Magpie 56
12. American Crow 6
13. Common Raven 1757
14. Black-capped Chickadee 101
15. Boreal Chickadee 16
16. Red-breasted Nuthatch 9
17. American Dipper 5
18. American Robin 7
19. Bohemian Waxwing 4032
20. Dark-eyed Junco 40 (Slate coloured 39, Oregon 1)
21. American Tree Sparrow 1
22. White-crowned Sparrow 4
23. Pine Grosbeak 88
24. Purple Finch 10
25. Red Crossbill 21
26. White-winged Crossbill 186
27. crossbill sp. 49
28. Common Redpoll 74
29. finch sp. 60
30. House Sparrow 152

---

Total Individuals 6822

Total Species Reported 28

Participants:

Tracy Allard, Jeremy Baumbach, Carrie Boles, Selena Boothroyd, Diane Brent, Cindy Breitkreutz, Laurie Brochu, Linda Cameron, Syd Cannings, Paul Davis, Marianne Douglas, Gabrielle Dupont, Cameron Eckert, Alison Eremenko, Timothy Giilck, Jim Hawkings, Melody Hazel, Christine Hedgecock, Ed Jenni, Carole Kroening, Yvette LePage, Maria Leung, Elise Maltinsky, Meghan Marjanovic, Logan McLeod, Karen McKenna, Dave Mossop, Marty Mossop, Wendy Nixon, Adam Perrier, Don Reid, Claudia Riveros, Bob Sagar, Mike Setterington, Pam Sinclair, Becky Striegler, Jenny Trapnell, Jim Tredger, Lena Ware, Ryleigh Whitfield, Keith Williams, Scott Williams, Caitlin Willier

Here’s a more complete report for those who like details….

WhitehorseCBC2022_countsummary