BMN: Minnekhada Farm CBC

Three BMN members, Victoria, Pamella, and Niall did the annual:
Minnekhada Farm , Christmas Bird Count,(CBC)   ( from Cedar Drive,(starting at DeBoville Slough) to Minnekhada Farm, along Quarry Road, Gilleys Trail, Cedar Drive, Deboville Slough )
This years bird count results are the numbers on the left, and last years in brackets on the right.
     Bold is showing that this species was not counted in 2012

American Wigeon   0 (2)
Mallard                  43 (83)
Ring-necked duck      6 (0)
Common Goldeneye   1 (0)
Great Blue Heron          3 (1)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 (0)
Red-tailed Hawk          2 (2)
Belted Kingfisher           0 (1)
Northern Flicker           4 (3)
Steller's Jay 2 (1)
Northwestern Crow        1 (1)
Black-capped Chickadee     1 (31)
Bushtit    0 (31)
Pacific Wren 7 (1)
American Dipper 0 (3)
Golden-Crowned Kinglet    2 (4)
American Robin 30 (2)
Varied Thrush    0 (22)
European Starling    1 (0)
Spotted Towhee   8 (0)
Fox Sparrow 1 (0)
Song Sparrow   10 (2)
Dark-Eyed Junco 27 (31)
Pine Siskin 0 (31)

     Counted 17 species, and 18 last year, but not all the same species.
Total number of birds was 252, in 2012; and 179 this year.

Bird nests in the stables at Minnekhada Farm, nearly every fire sprinkler head support
had this style of nest, associated with it.

We have to keep out of the areas with the naturalist bears in them.

As we walked along Cedar Drive, we came across a squished Norway rat on the road and within a few metres of it was a Roughskin newt also in the middle of the road. A very sluggish salamander it was in the cool temperatures, rescued by Pamella and put onto the road verge to hopefully find a safer place to hang out, rather than the center of the road. We also spotted a Eastern grey squirrel at Minnekhada Farm, not a welcome visitor in this area.

And some pictures from Pamella Zevitt of the adventure...