2024 Lewis County Christmas Bird Count Results
By Rachel Hudson, Compiler
On December 21st, 40 participants across 23 groups/singles of both field birders and feeder-watchers joined together to contribute to Lewis County’s eighth Christmas Bird Count. Despite the strangely warm, shower-y weather and many groups feeling rather birdless this year, we had our second-best year ever for total species, third best year ever for total individual birds, and scored 20 total high counts, 2 tied high counts with previous years, and three Count Firsts!
Our Species Total for 2024 is… 108! This is second only to last year, which had a total of 109 species, 4 of which were very rare birds for this area.
Our Count Firsts included two long-overdue Savannah Sparrows, a not-so-common Common Loon, and a group of 5 of those stately, huge, gregarious doves: Band-tailed Pigeons. Some of our high counts reflect the slow, northward spread of several species as the climate begins to favor them here: Great Egrets climbed up to 4 individuals this year, and Black Phoebes soared up to 8, more than double last year’s tally. Northern Flickers (156 individuals) and Red-breasted Sapsuckers (11) were also in abundance this year, and multiple forest species, such as Ruby-crowned Kinglet (155), Golden-crowned Kinglet (355), Chestnut-backed Chickadee (180), Evening Grosbeak (37), and Red Crossbill (48) all showed substantial increases over previous counts.
Owls, though low in total numbers, were gracious enough to make themselves known on Count Day, and we encountered nearly all of the expected owls for Western Washington: 3 American Barn (high count) and 1 each of Great Horned, Northern Pygmy-, Barred, Short-eared, and Northern Saw-whet Owls all made it onto this year’s list—the first time this has ever happened!
We did have several misses this year, which can happen any year; it’s all down to luck! This year, for the first time after the count’s inaugural run in 2017, Wood Ducks were not seen on Count Day. Canada Jays and California Quail also made themselves scarce; only 2 prior counts missed them, the most recent miss being in 2019 for the jays and 2018 for the quail. Several other species, such as Snow Goose, American Herring Gull, and American Pipit, were also not seen.
Many of us noticed a distinct lack of certain types of birds; no waterfowl, fewer hummingbirds, no sparrows, etc. Some of these birds were just more spread-out during Count Day than they usually are… for example, I saw none of my usual White-throated Sparrows in my section (typically at feeders), but an average number (3) still appeared, scattered singly in other sections instead. Waterfowl numbers were somewhat varied; many, such as Cackling Goose (465), Northern Shoveler (186), American Wigeon (1,398), and Green-winged Teal (651), had hundreds fewer individuals this year compared to last year. But some (Greater Scaup (2), Lesser Scaup (92), Common Goldeneye (12), Hooded Merganser (115), and Ruddy Duck (100)) were the highest they’ve ever been! Many were just average in their numbers. Overall, they seemed to be more widely dispersed, perhaps due to the warm weather across the region keeping them higher north, as well as plenty of seasonal ponds giving them widespread choices for habitat. Major hunting pressure in some sections also caused large groups of waterfowl to move away from their usual haunts and into areas where they are not as frequently reported, and likely out of our count area entirely for some.
Our feeder watchers reported lower numbers than usual at their feeders, which was possibly an indication of the mild weather giving the birds more choices for food “in the wild” as insects continued to be abundant, plants continued flowering, and tender new growth even appeared on some of the flora of our area. To support this theory, for the first 5 years of the count, non-passerines vastly outnumbered passerines (an average difference of almost 5,000 individuals), but on the most recent 3 count years, passerines have outnumbered non-passerines… with this year being an exact reversal, as we recorded just over 5,000 more passerines (14,797) than non-passerines (9,746)! This may suggest that milder weather could be changing the winter dynamics of the birds during these years.
Other high counts not previously mentioned include Yellow-rumped Warbler (13), Brown-headed Cowbird (131), European Starling (6,144), Merlin (8), and Rock Pigeon (365). The single low count was for Lesser Goldfinch (1), with one lone male at a feeder in Chehalis being the only representative this year for a species which has been increasing steadily in Western Washington in recent years. Once again, this is perhaps due to the warm weather reducing flock sizes at feeders, as more Lesser Goldfinches appeared later in the season once the temperatures gradually cooled.
Overall, the Lewis County CBC was a wonderful success, thanks entirely to the dedication and willpower of all the volunteers who participated. We had an amazing group of people, all of whom were invaluable in their help and contributions to the count. This was also my very first year as a CBC compiler, and I am delighted with how well everything turned out! My sincerest thanks go out to Black Hills Audubon Society and to everyone who made this count possible.
Photo credit: Golden-crowned Kinglet, by Rachel Hudson.
