Photo: Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

From Jeremy Ridlbauer, Grand Marais Audubon Christmas Bird Count Compiler - December 15


We had a good day of birding, and the temperatures were almost above freezing and the wind was not too terrible.  No snow or rain made it easier to see and be out looking around.  We had generally decent numbers for all species with the conditions.  Looking at the results, we all did good considering the winter blast right before the count probably moved the last of the stragglers out and moved in some more of our winter regulars.

So we did count our circle area of birds and have a reasonable list compared to previous years.
Thanks to ALL who birded Saturday and checked out our area.

We had 34 species on the count day, and 9 additional species so far on the count week.

We've had over 1200 individual birds, which is a low amount.

Circle area is a 7.5 mile radius circle from a point 3 miles south of the middle of Devil Track Lake.  The count circle covers Hwy 61 to Lindskog Rd and north, some of Cty Rd 60, Gunflint Trail to the
landfill road, Pine Mountain Rd to the backside of Elbow Lake, Devil Track Rd to Bally Creek Rd, Ball Club Rd to The Grade, Pike Lake Rd, and Hwy 61 west to Cascade Lodge, and all of the lakeshore between Lindskog Rd and Cascade Lodge.

We're still missing some species that we typically expect to see, so if you've seen any on this list below or others between 12:01 am Wednesday, Dec 11 and 11:59 pm Tuesday, Dec 17, we can still count it for the count week species list.  If you saw any of these on count day, Saturday, we can
promote them to the count day results.


Black-Billed Magpie
Bohemian Waxwing
Mergansers
Red-Necked Grebe
Red-Tailed Hawk (any raptors)
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Any sparrows
Larks
Brown Thrasher
Evening Grosbeak
Northern Cardinal
Northern Goshawk
ETC!


Here are the current results in order of abundance from Saturday and count weekers:

Black-capped Chickadee
Common Raven
European Starling
Herring Gull
American Crow
Blue Jay
Downy Woodpecker
American Goldfinch
American Robin
Rock Pigeon
House Sparrow
Cedar Waxwing
Common Goldeneye
Pine Grosbeak
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Pine Siskin
Common Redpoll
Bald Eagle
Hairy Woodpecker
Mallard
Dark-eyed Junco
Pileated Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Ruffed Grouse
Bufflehead
Common Grackle
Gray Jay
Great Gray Owl
Northern Shrike
American Tree Sparrow
Long-Tailed Duck
Northern Catbird
Purple Finch
Red-Winged Blackbird
Ruddy Duck
Rusty Blackbird
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Bohemian Waxwing (only count week so far)
Boreal Owl (only count week so far)
Brown Creeper (only count week so far)
Northern Cardinal (only count week so far)
Northern Flicker (only count week so far)
Rough-Legged Hawk (only count week so far)
Snow Bunting (only count week so far)
Snowy Owl (only count week so far)
White-Winged Crossbill (only count week so far)


Jeremy Ridlbauer
Grand Marais Audubon Christmas Bird Count Compiler