Birders wrap up 24th annual Christmas event

Frontiersman staff

Birders from around the Valley met for the 24th Matanuska Valley Audubon Christmas Bird Count Sunday, Dec. 15, recorded sightings of 33 species and 4,300 individual birds during the day-long count.

Also recorded during this count were 11 black-capped chickadees with deformed beaks out of the total of 700 black-capped chickadees counted.

Twenty-four teams of 31 field counters covered more than 545 miles by walking, driving and mushing, in an attempt to count as many birds and bird species as possible within the Matanuska Valley Count Circle. The count circle is centered on the intersection of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and Trunk Road at Four Corners.

Six feeder counters who live within the circle assisted in the count by spending 21.5 hours counting birds at their home feeders.

With the mild weather leading up to count day, and no snow to help the snowshoe hares hide, birders were expecting another good year for northern goshawks. However, the drop in temperatures and light snow fall just prior to count day was just enough to reduce feeding opportunity for the goshawks and only three were seen on the count, well down from the record high count of 18 in the 2000 count.

Organizers say the warm pre-count weather was probably a factor in the presence of three species new to the Mat-Su count -- northern harriers, glaucous gulls, and a lone first winter female yellow-rumped warbler, all species that should have already departed for the winter. The yellow-rumped warbler was still present at the feeder where it was first seen as recently as last Saturday (the 28th), after surviving a minus-9 degree night. Also, seen just off of Fairview Loop was another species new to the local count -- a northern bobwhite quail, a southeastern U.S. gamebird brought into Alaska for hunting.

New highs were set during this count for six species and previous high counts for four species were equaled.

Species counts --

Mallards - 768 (included 9 mallard/domestic hybrids)

Common merganser - 7 (equals previous high)

Bald eagle - 20 (new high)

Northern harrier - 2 (new species)

Northern goshawk - 3

Ruffed grouse - 4

Northern bobwhite - 1 (new species/exotic)

Glaucous gull - 5 (new species)

Rock dove (pigeon) - 171

Belted kingfisher - 1 (equals previous high)

Downy woodpecker - 13

Hairy woodpecker - 20

Three-toed woodpecker - 2

Northern shrike - 5

Gray jay - 5

Steller's jay - 1 (equals previous high)

Black-billed magpie - 255 (new high)

Common raven - 604 (stopped counting at noon)

Black-capped chickadee - 700 (including 11 with deformed beaks)

Boreal chickadee - 9

Red-breasted nuthatch - 42

American dipper - 17

Ruby-crowned kinglet - 2 (new high)

American robin - 2 (new high and first time seen on count day)

European starling - 90

Bohemian waxwings - 670 (new high)

Yellow-rumped warbler - 1 (new species)

American tree sparrow - 19 (new high)

White-crowned sparrow - 6 (equals previous high)

Dark-eyed junco - 6

Pine grosbeak - 278

Common redpoll - 563

Pine siskin - 8

The field counter team of Ralph Hulbert and Chuck Logsdon recorded the count day high species count of 13 species.