A snowy owl was spotted in the Grand Marais Harbor during the Grand Marais area 2021 Audubon Christmas Bird Count.  Photo: Joe Lutz

By Jeremy Ridlbauer, Grand Marais Audubon Christmas Bird Count Compiler - December 20, 2021


We had an good day of birding, and the temperatures were below freezing and not too much wind after sunrise, so it made for a comfortable count.  A respectable amount of birds seen this year.  Looking at the results, we all did very well.

We did have a late snow bunting and swamp sparrow, a single yellow-bellied sapsucker, and a snowy owl in the harbor on the count this year for unusual species, so you never know what you'll see!  We had lots of white-winged crossbills and common redpolls, along with many pine grosbeaks and the usual plethora of black-capped chickadees

So we did count our circle area of birds and have a 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 0 extra species so far on the count week. We've had over 3300 individual birds, which is a pretty high 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 15 and 11:59pm Tuesday, Dec 21, 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
Brown Creeper
Brown Thrasher
Northern Flicker
Red-Necked Grebe
Red-Tailed Hawk (any raptors)
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Song Sparrow (any sparrows)
Blackbirds
Bohemian Waxwing
White-crowned Sparrow
American Robin
Purple Finch
White-throated Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Northern Goshawk
Hermit Thrush
King Eider
Mourning Dove
Rough-legged Hawk
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
White-winged Scoter

ETC!

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

Common Redpoll
White-winged Crossbill
Black-capped Chickadee
Pine Grosbeak
Herring Gull
Cedar Waxwing
American Crow
Rock Pigeon
Common Raven
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Long-tailed Duck
Red Crossbill
Blue Jay
Downy Woodpecker
European Starling
Common Goldeneye
Bald Eagle
Hairy Woodpecker
Evening Grosbeak
Mallard
Ruffed Grouse
Pileated Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Sparrow
Red-breasted Merganser
Northern Cardinal
Gray Jay
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Shrike
Horned Grebe
Pine Siskin
Horned Lark
Snow Bunting
Snowy Owl
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Cooper's Hawk
Canada Goose
Swamp Sparrow
0 Count week birds so far