A black backed woodpecker near Grand Marais.  Photo courtesy of Josh Watson.

Here is an account of the Grand Marais Christmas Bird Count held on Saturday, December 16, 2017 from Jeremy Ridlbauer.

We had an ok day of birding - it was slooooow for everyone it seems. The weather wasn't bad and the excitement and comradery was excellent! So we did count our circle area of birds and have a good list compared to previous years.  Thanks to ALL who birded both Saturday (official count day), and worked in the cold and wind!

We had 40 species on the count day, and 48 species so far on the count week. We've had over 1900 individual birds, which is about half of last year, still.

Circle area is a 7.5 mile radius circle from a point 3 miles south of the middle of Devil Track Lake.  The count circle covers Hwy 61 to Lindskog Rd and north, some of Cty Rd 60, Gunflint Trail to the landfill road, Pine Mountain Rd to the backside of Elbow Lake, Devil Track Rd to Bally Creek Rd, Ball Club Rd to The Grade, Pike Lake Rd, and Hwy 61 west to Cascade Lodge,
and all of the lakeshore between Lindskog Rd and Cascade Lodge.

 A snowy owl feasted on a gull near Grand Marais harbor.  Photo courtesy of Josh Watson.

We're still missing some species that we typically expect to see, so if you've seen any on this list below or others between 12:01 am Wednesday, Dec 13 and 11:59pm Tuesday, Dec 19, we can still count it for the count week species list.  If you saw any of these on count day, Saturday, we can promote them to the count day results.

• Barred Owl  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Evening Grosbeak  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Great Gray Owl  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Long-tailed Duck  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Mallard  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Red-tailed Hawk  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Saw-whet Owl  (Seen on count week only so far)

Not seen, but seen in past counts:

• American Black Duck
• American Goldfinch
• American Robin
• Boreal Chickadee
• Common Grackle
• Common Merganser
• Golden-crowned Kinglet
• Harlequin Duck
• Purple Finch
• Snow Bunting
• Thayer's Gull
• Townsend's Solitaire
• White-throated Sparrow
• Varied Thrush
• Eastern Towhee
• Short-eared Owl
• Any owls, any raptors, ETC!

Thanks to the Blue Water Café for providing a meeting place at the end of
the day.

Here are the current results in order of abundance from Saturday and count weekers:

• Black-capped Chickadee
• Common Redpoll
• Common Raven
• Pine Grosbeak
• Red-breasted Nuthatch
• Blue Jay
• Pine Siskin
• Rock Pigeon
• Downy Woodpecker
• European Starling
• American Crow
• Herring Gull
• Red Crossbill
• Bohemian Waxwing
• Cedar Waxwing
• Dark-eyed Junco
• White-winged Crossbill
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Ruffed Grouse
• Common Goldeneye
• Bald Eagle
• Northern Shrike
• Pileated Woodpecker
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• House Sparrow
• Brown Creeper
• Bufflehead
• Gray Jay
• Song Sparrow
• Canada Goose
• Northern Cardinal
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Black-backed Woodpecker
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Hoary Redpoll
• Northern Flicker
• Red-breasted Merganser
• Rough-legged Hawk
• Snowy Owl
• Spruce Grouse
• Barred Owl  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Evening Grosbeak  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Great Gray Owl  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Long-tailed Duck  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Mallard  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Red-tailed Hawk  (Seen on count week only so far)
• Saw-whet Owl  (Seen on count week only so far)