The 120th Audubon Christmas Bird Count was held Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019. Thirty-two local bird counters in the field and an additional seven feeder watchers who kept track of birds visiting their bird feeders tallied 13,780 birds of 80 species, a record number of species for the Homer count and beating last year’s record by nine species.
Six additional species were also documented during count week (three days before and after the actual count day). Numbers of feeder watchers were up from previous years and helped achieve the high numbers. A list of each species and number is below and on the Kachemak Bay Birders’ website at www.kachemakbaybirders.org.
Four species were new to the Homer count and count week: the sooty shearwater, canvasback, ring-necked duck, and orange-crowned warbler. The exceptionally warm fall is likely the key factor in delaying the migration of these species to more southern latitudes.
The most abundant bird species this year were the pine siskin (4,077), mallard (1,937) and rock sandpipers (1,420). A good spruce-cone crop this year is supporting large number of finches such as the pine siskin, white-winged crossbill and pine grosbeak, in comparison to recent years. Although a large flock of American robins has been common throughout Homer this fall, only 57 were tallied on this year’s count. It’s often easy to miss large flocks when trying to cover such a large area.
High mallard numbers reflected the lack of ice in Beluga Slough, Beluga Lake and Mud Bay before a hard freeze in January. These ducks typically winter on the south side of Kachemak Bay when the ice blocks access to feeding habitats along the north shore. Rock sandpipers, a winter resident of Kachemak Bay, were found in generally similar numbers as in previous years.
Over the last several years, there has been a downward trend in the numbers of four species of seaducks in the nearshore waters of the count area. These seaducks include the common eider, Steller’s eider, white-winged scoter, and surf scoter. Primary factors in this negative trend are unknown.
A big thanks to all the participants out counting or watching feeders, and to the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center staff for the use of their facilities and helping with logistics for our count. As the Kachemak Bay Birder’s motto goes, “It was a great day to bird.”
Dave Erikson is a longtime birder who coordinated the Christmas Bird Count and compiled the results.
2019 Homer Christmas Bird Count results:
Trumpeter swan 2
Mallard 1937
Northern pintail 2
American wigeon 81
Eurasian wigeon 2
Green-winged teal (count week)
Canvasback 1
Ring-necked duck CW
Greater scaup 294
Lesser scaup (count week observed)
Long-tailed duck 201
Surf scoter 23
White-winged scoter 21
Black scoter 729
Scoter species 1
Harlequin duck 17
Common goldeneye 92
Bufflehead 62
Common merganser 185
Red-breasted merganser 77
Merganser species 3
Ring-necked pheasant 28
Spruce grouse 2
Common loon 38
Yellow-billed loon 1
Pacific loon 11
Red-necked grebe 22
Horned grebe 38
Short-tailed shearwater 2
Sooty shearwater 5
Fork-tailed storm-petrel 1
Pelagic cormorant 75
Bald eagle mature 125
Bald eagle immature 18
Northern harrier 2
Sharp-shinned hawk (count week)
Northern goshawk 2
Rock sandpiper 1420
Dunlin 62
Black-legged kittiwake 411
Bonaparte’s gull 1
Mew gull 286
Herring gull 13
Glaucous-winged gull 147
Glaucous-winged and herring gull cross 6
Common murre 23
Pigeon guillemot 21
Marbled murrelet 27
Ancient murrelet 2
Alcid species or murrelet species 3
Rock pigeon 114
Great horned owl 3
Northern saw-whet owl (count week observed)
Anna’s hummingbird 1
Downy woodpecker 7
Hairy woodpecker 2
Merlin 1
Northern shrike 1
Steller’s jay 7
Gray jay 15
Black-billed magpie 58
Northwestern crow 791
Common raven 127
Black-capped chickadee 189
Boreal chickadee 45
Red-breasted nuthatch 64
Brown creeper 4
Pacific wren 9
American dipper 1
Golden-crowned kinglet 38
Ruby-crowned kinglet 17
American robin 56
Varied thrush 14
Townsend’s solitaire 3
European starling 17
Bohemian waxwing 529
Snow bunting 2
Savannah sparrow (count week observed)
Song sparrow 8
Lincoln’s sparrow (count week observed)
Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco 4
Dark-eyed (slate-colored) jJunco 34
White-crowned sparrow 6
Golden-crowned sparrow 20
White- throated sparrow 3
Rusty blackbird 12
Orange-crowned warbler 1
Common redpoll 36
Hoary redpoll 1
Pine siskin 4077
Small finch species 220
Gray-crowned rosy-finch 150
White-winged crossbill 182
Pine grosbeak 167
Count Day Species total 80
Additional for count week 6
Grand Total 13,558
Bold = New for Christmas count
A rusty blackbird was one of the birds counted on Dec. 14, 2019, for the annual Christmas Bird Count in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy by Tim Quinn)
