On Saturday December 17th I did my traditional route on the Mormon Lake
CBC along with Troy, Kathryn and Jeff. There had been no snow to speak
of prior to the count and we arrived at the Upper Lake Mary Dam to see
open water. So we knew immediately that things would be different to
recent years.
The walk across the dam yielded Ruddy Duck, Mallard and a Western Grebe
on the water - the latter being seen on the count for just the second
time. A flyover Bald Eagle was expected, but our first passerine was a
Townsend's Solitaire and we also saw a perched Red-tailed Hawk. Our
seventh and eight species of the day were, often the first two seen,
Common Raven and Dark-eyed Junco.
Sadly this great start did not continue and the trek out to Vail Lake
and back yielded little but the expected forest birds. A group of 43
Mountain Bluebirds being the only thing of note.
Meeting at the Lodge for lunch we found that Ashurst Lake was also open
and although duck numbers were small there were several species as well
as unexpected Ring-billed Gulls on the water. The Mormon Lake fire
station area gave two new birds for the count - American Avocet and a
Common Loon, and a group of us stopped to see the loon on the way back.
The count had 49 species of which I saw 28.
