55th Calgary Christmas Bird Count

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55th Calgary Christmas Bird Count

• Sunday December 17, 2006

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Observation Skills Test

• Count all the F s in the text in the next
  slide

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• FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
• SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
• FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
• THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

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Three

• FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
• SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
• FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
• THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

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Six

• FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
• SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
• FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
• THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

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Calgary Count Circle
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Conditions

• Sunny from 11 AM
• Temperature Range -12 to -1 deg C
• Wind calm, then W 20 gusting to 37 km/h
• Snow Cover 4 - 10 cm
• Open Water Rivers 50 100 , Reservoir, 0
• Low cone crop and many berries

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Field Observers
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Participants
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Effort
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Number of Individuals Seen
63 752
Second-Highest Ever
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New Records - Birders!!
No of Party-Hours 255 (Old Record, 228.5 in 2005)
No of Field Observers 107 (Old Record, 102 in
2005)
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Number of Species Recorded
69
20 yr avg - 65
2005 - 65
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Count Week

• Count Day, 69
• Count Week, 2
• Total Including Count-Week, 71

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Battle of Alberta

• Calgary, 69
• Edmonton, 56

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Cumulative Species for Count
Cumulative, 133 species
No new species this year
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Number 1
15 505
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Number 2
12 709
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Number 3
12 301
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Number 4
6348
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Number 5
4611
Record High Count
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Number 6
2880
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Number 7
2264
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Number 8
2221
Record High Count
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Number 9
886
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Number 10
754
Record High Count
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Unusual Species
2 or less years in previous 10 years
Pacific Loon
Only previous record was in 1993 the same
winter as Pine Warbler and Northern Cardinal
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Fairly Unusual Species (2)
3 or 4 years in previous 10 years
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Record High Counts
Record High Counts were set for 12 species (2003
19 2004 6 2005 -9)
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Record High Counts (1)
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Record High Counts (2)
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High Counts (1)
More than twice 10-year average
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High Counts (2)
More than twice 10-year average
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Low Counts
Less than 50 of Ten-Year Average
Low counts in recent years 2003 2 2004 9
2005 - 13
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Old Faithfuls (1)
Ten of Last Ten Years
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Old Faithfuls (2)
Ten of Last Ten Years
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Old Faithfuls (3)
Ten of Last Ten Years
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Not Always Seen (1)
9 of Last Ten Years
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Not Always Seen (2)
7-8 of Last Ten Years
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Not Always Seen (3)
5-6 of Last Ten Years
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Missed Species
Seen in at least 5 of last 10 years

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Scarcity of Rarities
1/54
24/36
43/43
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Count Week Birds
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Honorable Mention (1)
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Most Improved (1)

• Team W-6S
• (Costello and Costello)
• improved from Nowhere
• to 13th place

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Most Improved (2)

• Team N-8
• (Kissinger, Kissinger, Marler and Ryan)
• improved from 20th place
• to 9th place

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6th Place

• Team E-2 (Mulligan, Fishkin, Howlin and
  Vanderpol)
• Ring-necked Pheasant
• 22 species
• 109.2 points

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5th Place

• Team E-4 (Wieckowski, Wieckowski and Phelps)
• Coopers Hawk
• Mountain Chickadee
• 30 species
• 140.6 points

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4th Place

• Feeder Watchers
• Song Sparrow
• Purple Finch
• 34 species
• 164.9 points

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Contribution of Feeder Watchers
The only Song Sparrow and the only Purple Finch
40 Merlin, Northern Flicker, Red-breasted
Nuthatch, White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed
Junco, House Finch and Pine Siskin
9 species 40 vs. 7 species in 2005
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Bronze Medal

• Team W-10 (Saunders, Callanan, Elder, Podlubny
  and Visser)
• Ruffed Grouse
• Prairie Falcon
• Northern Saw-whet Owl
• 28 species
• 184.6 points

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Silver Medal

• Team E-1 (Goulet, Goulet, Black and Bulman)
• Northern Pintail
• Pacific Loon
• Gyrfalcon
• 33 species
• 249.6 points

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Gold Medal

• Team S-1 (Hitchon, Hitchon, Clark, Flynn, Flynn,
  Mills, Rogers, Wilson and Woods )
• Redhead
• Long-tailed Duck
• Snowy Owl
• Gull species
• 32 species
• 273.0 points

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2001

• Finch Fiesta

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2002

• Gaggles of Geese Galore

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2003

• Waxwing Wonderland (lots of Finches too)

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2004

• Media Mania
• (Honk, Honk!!)

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2005

• Birding Bountiful
• (Record number of birds and birders)

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2006

• Scarcity of Rarities
• (LOON-acy)

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Thanks!

• To all Field Observers and Feeder Participants
• To John McFaul, Terry Korolyk, Cedric Hitchon and
  Jim Washbrook
• To Donna and Arthur Wieckowski
• To Pat Harvey, Shirley Hill, May Jardine, Dorothy
  Johnston, Mary Lore and Catherine McGlashan
• To Chris and Ken Havard

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Northern Shrike at Pearce Estates,
Calgary Christmas Bird Count , Dec 17, 2006
Photo by Arthur Wieckowski
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Happy New Year