Preliminary Results: 2020 Grand Marais Audubon Christmas Bird Count
Dec 21, 2020 06:10AM ● By Editor
By Jeremy Ridlbauer, Grand Marais Audubon Christmas Bird Count Compiler - December 20, 2020
We had an good day of birding, and the temperatures were mostly near freezing and not too much wind, so it made for a comfortable count. A respectable amount of birds seen this year, with relatively warm temperatures up to the count, so stragglers will stick around. Looking at
the results, we all did very well.
We did have a couple of sparrows, a very late pine warbler, and I believe a first GM CBC record King Eider! (thanks Harvey Sobieck!) 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 reasonable list compared to previous years. Thanks to ALL who birded Saturday and checked out our area.
We had 38 species on the count day, and 2 species so far on the count week. We've had over 1900 individual birds, which is a regular 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 16 and 11:59pm Tuesday, Dec 22, 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 (any owls)
Black-backed Woodpecker
Black-Billed Magpie
Cedar Waxwing
Brown Creeper
Brown Thrasher
Mergansers
Northern Flicker
Red-Necked Grebe
Red-Tailed Hawk (any raptors)
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Song Sparrow (any sparrows
Blackbirds
ETC!
Here are the current results in order of abundance from Saturday and count weekers:
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Bohemian Waxwing
Common Raven
Blue Jay
White-winged Crossbill
Herring Gull
American Crow
Common Redpoll
Downy Woodpecker
Rock Pigeon
Hairy Woodpecker
Pine Grosbeak
Common Goldeneye
Long-tailed Duck
Ruffed Grouse
White-crowned Sparrow
House Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-breasted Nuthatch
European Starling
Pileated Woodpecker
Bald Eagle
Northern Cardinal
Gray Jay
Evening Grosbeak
American Robin
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Shrike
Northern Goshawk
Pine Siskin
Fox Sparrow
Rough-legged Hawk
Pine Warbler
King Eider
Hermit Thrush
Lincoln's Sparrow
Canada Goose
Great Gray Owl (seen only for count week though)
Black-backed Woodpecker (seen only for count week though)
We had an good day of birding, and the temperatures were mostly near freezing and not too much wind, so it made for a comfortable count. A respectable amount of birds seen this year, with relatively warm temperatures up to the count, so stragglers will stick around. Looking at
the results, we all did very well.
We did have a couple of sparrows, a very late pine warbler, and I believe a first GM CBC record King Eider! (thanks Harvey Sobieck!) 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 reasonable list compared to previous years. Thanks to ALL who birded Saturday and checked out our area.
We had 38 species on the count day, and 2 species so far on the count week. We've had over 1900 individual birds, which is a regular 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 16 and 11:59pm Tuesday, Dec 22, 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 (any owls)
Black-backed Woodpecker
Black-Billed Magpie
Cedar Waxwing
Brown Creeper
Brown Thrasher
Mergansers
Northern Flicker
Red-Necked Grebe
Red-Tailed Hawk (any raptors)
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Song Sparrow (any sparrows
Blackbirds
ETC!
Here are the current results in order of abundance from Saturday and count weekers:
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Bohemian Waxwing
Common Raven
Blue Jay
White-winged Crossbill
Herring Gull
American Crow
Common Redpoll
Downy Woodpecker
Rock Pigeon
Hairy Woodpecker
Pine Grosbeak
Common Goldeneye
Long-tailed Duck
Ruffed Grouse
White-crowned Sparrow
House Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-breasted Nuthatch
European Starling
Pileated Woodpecker
Bald Eagle
Northern Cardinal
Gray Jay
Evening Grosbeak
American Robin
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Shrike
Northern Goshawk
Pine Siskin
Fox Sparrow
Rough-legged Hawk
Pine Warbler
King Eider
Hermit Thrush
Lincoln's Sparrow
Canada Goose
Great Gray Owl (seen only for count week though)
Black-backed Woodpecker (seen only for count week though)
