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EAST MEETS WEST AT MASHKIONONJE
The Friends of Mashkinonje had a nice day
for their second annual Christmas Bird Count. The day was overcast with
temperatures above freezing. The best time for bird watching is a half-hour
after sunrise, so the 38 feeder watchers and 15 field observers started
early with their annual watch. Unfortunately, we could not include all the
feeder watchers who wanted to be included in our count. We had requests to
participate from Sturgeon Falls, Field, River Valley and Cache Lake. Each
Christmas Bird Count has a circle with a 15 mile diameter. The
aforementioned areas are outside the Mashkinonje circle.
The Friends of Mashkinonje would be
willing to help other areas create their own Christmas Bird Counts. Bird
watching is North Americas fastest growing hobby, the probable reason is
birds are apart of the nature that surrounds us, they will come when you
feed them and they are a delight to watch. The Co-op in Verner sells 2,000
pounds of bird feed a month. The Mashkinonje Christmas Bird count was Chris
Bell’s 5th for the year and around his 100th for his career. The Friends of
Mashkinonje would like to extend a special thank you to our Feeder Watcher
Coordinators: Carmelle Girouard, Lavigne North; Lorraine Courchesne, Lavigne
South and Ev Eisenhauer, North Monetville. They have all agreed to help us
in our next Christmas Bird Count.
Every year the bird count will generate
new results, Mother Nature is never predictable. Last years count resulted
in 29 species with 1,277 individuals, in this year’s count we managed to
locate 27 species and 2,512 individuals. Dick Tafel’s group managed to find
a flock of 676 Snow Buntings with 3 Lapland Longspurs amongst them, in the
north east part of the circle. We didn’t get a Great Blue Heron in our count
this year because the lake was frozen in early December so there was no
consistent open water for herons or ducks. American Goldfinches were the
predominant feeder birds in the 2002 count, this year the Common Redpolls
came down from the Arctic to become the predominant feeder birds. Sometimes
a Hoary Redpoll with a white back can be found amongst the Common Redpolls,
3 were located. The Evening and Pine Grosbeaks both very pretty and nomadic
birds were counted this year.
Three Rough-legged Hawks, a Northern
Goshawk and a Black-backed Woodpecker were also located. We didn’t find any
owls, which are especially interesting to bird watchers. Hairy Woodpeckers
and Blue Jays decreased by 40% this year. The number of Common Ravens
doubled from 106 to 208 and Black-capped Chickadees increased from 326 to
477. The increase in Black-capped Chickadees is interesting because in some
areas of southern Ontario their numbers are declining and now studies are
going to be undertaken to find the possible cause. Although these results
are not perfect, the results are a good indicator of bird populations and
migration, which is why Bird Studies Canada coordinates these findings for
the Audubon Society. The results of the Mashkinonje Christmas Bird Count
will be published along with all the other worldwide bird counts in the
Audubon Society magazine next summer.
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