DOWNY WOODPECKER – A male downy woodpecker is filling up on suet at a Dexter bird feeder. Three downy woodpeckers were seen this year, more than ever before in the Christmas count. COMMON EIDERS – A flock of common eiders with wind-whipped feathers is feeding in the lee of Nome’s causeway during the Christmas bird count.

Christmas Bird Count yields a record number of species

It’s surprising how often the mid-December weather smiles on Nome’s Christmas bird count. But this year, for the 49th count, conditions were far from ideal.

In the predawn hours of December 14, the wind ramped up, gusting to 38 miles per hour in Nome. Slick, ice-covered roads put parts of the count area out of reach. It was certainly tempting to delay the count. But the situation was not forecast to improve.

Birds must find food, so surely we could find birds. We could depend on ravens to be scavenging at the dump, and the chickadees, woodpeckers and buntings would continue their regular rounds at local bird feeders. The few remaining, but rapidly freezing, patches of open water along the coast could yield seabirds. Most importantly, our team of nine dedicated volunteers was game to brave it and see what we could find.

As is often the case, once out the door it wasn’t as bad as imagined through the window from the comforts of home. Creeping slowly along slick roads on studded tires and crunching over icy tundra, creek bottoms and shores on foot with cleats, we covered as much of the count area as we safely could in the short daylight hours.

For the eiders and gulls feeding in the wind-whipped water it appeared to be just a normal day at sea. But not so for those of us trying to pick out the few king eiders amidst the common eiders, or document the glaucous-winged gull that was rare to see this late in the season. Getting a clear view through binoculars and scopes with teary, wind-blurred vision, or a sharp photo with a wind-buffeted camera was no easy task.

Despite the challenges, our efforts paid off far beyond expectations. We found a record 13 species, up from the previous record of 12 species in 2016 and 2019.

Thanks to the combined efforts of Carol Gales, Jim Dory, Dan Reed, Gay Sheffield, Hannah Anderson, Charlie and Mikey Lean, Pete Rob and myself, we found:

King eider: 6

Common eider: 27

Eider species: 4

Willow ptarmigan: 21

Glaucous-winged gull: 1

Glaucous gull: 17

Rock pigeon: 5

Downy woodpecker: 3

Northern shrike: 1  

Common raven: 113 

Black-capped chickadee: 5

American dipper: 2 

Snow bunting: 2

McKay’s bunting: 7

Bunting species: 20

 

Two additional species were seen during “count week,” which includes the three days before and after count day. A flock of six redpolls was seen passing through Dexter. Redpoll numbers here in winter are variable, and this winter there have been few. And two mallards were seen on the Nome River. It was very late in the season for mallards, and it was the first time they have been reported during count week.

I am aware of a few other species that were seen shortly before or after count week and were likely present. These include the long-tailed duck, rock ptarmigan, short-eared owl (never seen in Nome’s Christmas count), boreal owl and pine grosbeak.

In these changing times, more often than not there is still some open water along the coast in mid-December where seabirds and gulls linger to feed. The eiders and gulls seen this year are expected species that winter along the ice edge in the Bering Sea. Long-tailed ducks and black guillemots also winter in the ice and have been seen occasionally during recent counts, but not this year.

There were fewer ravens seen during this count than on previous counts since 2000, when online records for Nome begin. A previous low count in 2013 occurred after changes to dump management practices reduced food availability. No such changes were made to explain the low count this year. Ravens have been fewer than normal at the dump all fall. The Peregrine Fund surveys last summer documented lower than normal raven productivity in this area.

This fall and winter there has been a delightful abundance of black-capped chickadees and downy woodpeckers in the Nome area, and that uptick in numbers was picked up in the count. More downy woodpeckers and the second most black-capped chickadees were seen compared to previous Christmas counts.

Woodpeckers and chickadees are forest dwellers that sometimes move into willow thickets during winter. Their numbers here vary from year to year. When they do come, chickadees readily visit bird feeders to eat sunflower seeds and mixed bird seed. Downy woodpeckers will come faithfully to suet once they find it.

In Nome, bird feeders with millet seed attract McKay’s and snow buntings. It is thanks to those maintaining bird feeders that we were able to easily document chickadees, woodpeckers and buntings that flock to feeders at dawn and dusk to fill up before and after our long winter nights.

 

 

The Nome Nugget

PO Box 610
Nome, Alaska 99762
USA

Phone: (907) 443-5235
Fax: (907) 443-5112

www.nomenugget.net

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