GRANT COUNTY – The 29th annual John Day Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was held on Saturday, Dec. 19.

Eighteen individuals arrived at the Outpost Restaurant that morning to help with the count, including two from Bend and one from Baker City. In addition, there were other contributors with reports of bird activity from their yards.

The day started off with a light rain and cool, but the sun revealed itself occasionally in the afternoon. There are about 2,000 similar counts designed to help survey wintering birds in all 50 states, every Canadian province, parts of Central and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies and Pacific Islands from December 14 through January 5 (inclusive) every year.

By tradition, the count area is a circle with a 15-mile diameter, or an area of roughly 177 square miles. The John Day Christmas Bird Count has its center at the stop light in John Day and has the unique distinction of having an irregular circumference, an exception allowed due to our topography and accessibility.

It is not possible to see every species or individual during that short period, especially with a small group of people, but the longevity over the years provides valuable information concerning the concentrations and distribution of birds during the winter in North America.

Waterfowl species and numbers were down this year, as were some of the smaller birds. This probably was due to the cold snap during the previous week.

There wasn’t anything unusual about this year’s count. The highlights include more rough-legged hawks than have been seen since 1985 and more house sparrows counted since 1986. Only three bald eagles were found in the count area this year, the least since 1996. And fewer song sparrows were found this year, the fewest since 1982. At this writing a very unusual sighting is being investigated.

A report of a peregrine falcon near Holliday State Park requires verification. Peregrines have been seen in Grant County, but never in the winter. In fact, they are extremely rare away from the coast at this time of year.

All told, there were 60 species observed and 5,633 individual birds counted.

Birds seen this year during the count day were great blue heron, Canada goose, green-winged teal, mallard, American wigeon, bald eagle, northern harrier, sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper’s hawk, northern goshawk, red-tailed hawk, rough-legged hawk, golden eagle, American kestrel, merlin, prairie falcon, (peregrine falcon?), wild turkey, California quail, American coot, rock pigeon, Eurasian collared-dove, mourning dove, western screech-owl, great horned owl, belted kingfisher, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, northern flicker, Steller’s jay, western scrub-jay, Clark’s nutcracker, black-billed magpie, American crow, common raven, black-capped chickadee, mountain chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, pygmy nuthatch, American dipper, golden-crowned kinglet, ruby-crowned kinglet, Townsend’s solitaire, hermit thrush, American robin, Bohemian waxwing, cedar waxwing, northern shrike, loggerhead shrike, European starling, spotted towhee, song sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, slate-colored and Oregon juncos, house finch, red crossbill, pine siskin, lesser goldfinch, American goldfinch, evening grosbeak and house sparrow.

Participants included Bob Authier, Mike Bohannon, Rick Callahan, Margaret Carey, JJ Collier, Jerry Ebeltoft, Cecil Gagnon, Gale Hammond, Tom Hunt, Karen Jacobs, Cindy Kranich, Peter Meyer, Frazier Nichol, Clarence O’Leary, Marilyn O’Leary, Malachi Wilson, Barbara Winters and Tom Winters. Also contributing was Ann Frost.

Thanks go to the Crown Ranch and Grant Western Lumber Company for the opportunity to check out their outbuildings and properties, and to several other landowners who allowed the teams to observe birds on their properties.

Tom Winters is the treasurer and field notes reporter for the Grant County Bird Club.