Bird numbers down in Bow-Kananaskis count

KANANASKIS COUNTRY – The number of individual birds and species during the winter bird count in Kananaskis Country were some of the lowest ever, with one bird species now absent for the last five years.

Birders say the overall BowKan Circle Christmas Bird Count on Jan. 4 has been consistently lower than the average of 1,216 birds since 2021, but this year’s count of 449 individual birds was the lowest ever.

“Previous Christmas counts with results in this range was our first with 470 birds in 1992, 474 birds in 2005 and 470 birds in 2022,” said Cliff Hansen, coordinator of BowKan Birders.

The 29 bird species is also lower than the overall average of 34 species; other lower counts over time included 25 species in 1992, 29 species in 2010, 28 species in 2016 and 27 species in 2019.

“The lack of new cones on evergreen trees may be a good reason for a lack of birds that depend on them for food, but the count of most other species was also down,” said Hansen in the BowKan Birders newsletter.

On Jan. 4, 22 birders formed 13 groups to cover a 24-kilometre diameter of the BowKan Circle including parts of K-Country and Exshaw and Lac Des Arcs as part of the annual Christmas Bird Count, which provides critical data on bird population trends.

The longest running wildlife census in the world, the Christmas Bird Count is completed by volunteers across North America each year on one day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. It started 125 years ago as an alternative to bird hunting.

Local birders are concerned about the disappearance from this count area of evening grosbeaks – heavyset yellow-bodied finches with big bills.

Hansen said that beginning in the first spring count in May 1993 until the 2010 spring count, the species was present in the Exshaw/Lac Des Arcs area every summer.

During the official counts, he said evening grosbeaks were seen in numbers ranging from zero to 20.

“The zeros did not mean no birds; it just meant they were not seen on official count days,” he said.

While the Christmas counts have traditionally seen more evening grosbeaks, Hansen said the last sighting occurred in the 2020 count.

“Since then, this species has sadly disappeared from our count area,” he said. “I hope this might spur further study and lead to remediation.”

Birders made other significant observations during the BowKan Christmas count.

Hansen said trumpeter swans were only counted three times and in small numbers prior to the 2020 count, but since then, the swans have been present on all but the 2022 Christmas count.

“This Christmas, our count of 40 birds with many juveniles is the highest count to date,” he said.

Hansen said one Wilson’s snipe, which occasionally overwinters here, was spotted on the Christmas count, and for the first time, a ruby-crowned kinglet was recorded.

He said the 54 rock doves is the only species this year that was seen in significantly higher numbers than their count average of 37. For the first time in the BowKan count, the boreal chickadee was not spotted by birders.

The University of Calgary’s Biogeoscience Institute houses KanBow’s birding data, which can be found at: https://research.ucalgary.ca/biogeoscience-institute/community-outreach/bowkan-birders.

“The count whether high or low is significant and adds to the knowledge of our area,” Hansen said.

BowKan Birders host the spring count on May 24 and 25.