Ken Wright and Marg Holm spot birds during near the Throne during the 112th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Saturday, December 31. The CBC is an annual tradition started over 100 years ago as an alternative to an annual hunt. Today thousands of people from all over the world participate in the watch .Photo by Dick Cannings.
Doug Brown has been an avid birdwatcher for more than 40 years. He first took part in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) about 38 years ago, when he was only 16 years old.
This year he was one of 33 participants counting birds in the Osoyoos-Oliver area for the 112th CBC. When asked why he has been spotting birds for the better part of four decades, Brown said it’s the thrill of the competition that keeps him going.
“To a certain extent it is the competition with the other counts,” said Brown, who is the president and compiler for the Osoyoos-Oliver Naturalist Club. “That’s something a lot of the people go for, but the results are also heavily used for conservation.”
“They’ve done a study that shows over the past 40 years a number of species are moving their breeding ranges north because of global warming,” explained Brown, “and the Christmas bird count has shown this.”
This year 21,816 birds from 107 different species were counted in the Osoyoos-Oliver area – which stretches 15 miles in diameter, from the top of Mount Kobau, to Anarchist Mountain, to the north edge of Oliver and all the way down to Boundary Point across the border.
That number is above Penticton’s count, which recorded 99 different species, and Kelowna’s count, which recorded 92.
“Of course I feel pride in that,” said Brown.
This is the 33rd year the count has been done in the Osoyoos-Oliver area and Brown has been present for all but one of them. He said while this year’s total is actually down a tad from previous years, it’s still well above the long-term average of 15,200.
“Pretty well all the bird counts in the Okanagan were reporting very low numbers and found it really quiet,” said Brown. “We don’t really know why.”
Even though the count may have been down this year, there were still a couple of surprises in store for the naturalist group, with the first being the introduction of a new species, Bewick’s Wren. Brown said this particular species has been slowly migrating to the Okanagan from Washington State over the past six years. The addition of Bewick’s Wren brings the groups all-time species count to 162.
“We normally get one new one a year (species) but it gets tougher the longer you do this,” said Brown with a laugh.
But of all the different birds counted this year, Brown said the Mountain Bluebird, which has only been spotted four times over the past 33 years, was definitely the rarest find.
Other sightings of interest included the Pacific Loon, Cackling Goose, Virginia Rail, American Three-Toed Woodpecker, Black-Backed Woodpecker and Yellow-Rumped Warbler.
The CBC was started more than a century ago, when 27 conservationists in 25 locations, led by scientist and writer Frank Chapman, purposed a more humane option to the annual side hunt – a Christmas day tradition where teams of people competed to see who could shoot the most birds and small mammals.
Fast forward 112 years and now thousands of people from all over the world participate in the annual count.
