A late season Snow Bunting was among the unusual species spotted Saturday.  Photo: Audubon Society

By Jeremy Ridlbauer - Grand Marais Audubon Christmas Bird Count Compiler - December 16, 2019

We had an OK day of birding, and the temperatures were mostly above zero, so
it made for a comfortable count.  Not a huge number of birds around and
seen, due to wind and conditions, so count numbers are low.  The snow
impeded both our sight for movement and dampening sound.  Looking at the
results, we all did pretty good though.

We did have multiple sparrows and a late snow bunting on the count this year
for unusual species, so you never know what you'll see!

So we did count our circle area of birds and have an ok list compared to
previous years.  Thanks to ALL who birded Saturday and checked out our area.

We had 32 species on the count day, and 5 species so far on the count week.
We've had over 1400 individual birds, which is a low amount.

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.

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
11 and 11:59pm Tuesday, Dec 17, 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
Black-backed Woodpecker
Black-Billed Magpie
Bohemian Waxwing
Brown Creeper
Brown Thrasher
Canada Goose
Common Merganser
Common Redpoll
Evening Grosbeak
Fox Sparrow
Northern Flicker
Red-Necked Grebe
Red-Tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Song Sparrow
White-winged Crossbill
ETC!

Thanks to the Voyageur Brewery 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:
Cedar Waxwing
Black-capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch
Pine Siskin
Common Raven
Herring Gull
American Crow
Dark-eyed Junco
Blue Jay
House Sparrow
Red-breasted Nuthatch
European Starling
Common Goldeneye
Downy Woodpecker
Rock Pigeon
Purple Finch
Bald Eagle
Hairy Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
Pileated Woodpecker
American Robin
Northern Cardinal
Pine Grosbeak
Ruffed Grouse
Crossbill Sp.
Gray Jay
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow
Red Crossbill (seen only for count week though)
Saw Whet Owl (seen only for count week though)
Boreal Owl (seen only for count week though)
Long-tailed Duck (seen only for count week though)
Northern Flicker (seen only for count week though)

Contact:
Jeremy Ridlbauer
Grand Marais Audubon Christmas Bird Count Compiler
218-370-0733