Date: 12/22/24 8:11 pm From: Michael Woodruff via Inland-nw-birders <inland-nw-birders...> Subject: [inland-NW-birders] Cheney CBC
This year marked the 7th year for Cheney Christmas Bird Count. As has been the case in other CBC circles, warm weather brought some interesting patterns this year, with plenty of open water, quite high numbers of ducks, some lingering species, but also a few species that just weren't in the area this year or at very low numbers (only 2 robins, no waxwings, no Rough-legged Hawks). Red Crossbills and Red-breasted Nuthatches were abundant. We had a cold windy start to the day but by the end of the day it had mostly cleared and mostly calmed. For the first time, no snow at all was on the ground.
We had 71 species for the count, tying the previous best. In addition there were 2 count week species (Evening Grosbeak, Ruby-crowned Kinglet). We had 31 observers who put in 83.75 party hours, driving 496 miles and walking 25. Three of us went owling for a total of 9.75 hrs effort. We tallied 10,436 individual birds this year.
New species for the count: Eared Grebe - 3 on Silver Lake Barred Owl - 1 found by Sandy Schreven White-crowned Sparrow - a flock at feeders by Bea Harrison Ruby-crowned Kinglet - count week bird found by Jared Peck
Being a relatively new count, it is exciting to see what turns up each year, with the total number of species seen during the count now at 103. Some of the areas of the count include fairly rich areas for birding (Silver Lake, Granite Lake, Turnbull NWR, Slavin Ranch), while large parts of the circle are relatively uninteresting pine woods and scablands. But those teams assigned to the less interesting parts still put in their best efforts. All are appreciated!
Good birding! Michael Woodruff Spokane, WA _______________________________________________ Inland-nw-birders mailing list send email to: <Inland-nw-birders...> manage subscription: https://mailmanlists.us/mailman/listinfo/inland-nw-birders
