By Bob Reistroffer
On Friday, January 1, 2021 the 37th Cowlitz-Columbia Christmas Bird Count (3CBC) was conducted. We had 18 field observers and 2 feeder watchers out for the day peering through rain and low clouds. They found 103 species and 18,048 individual birds. The count this year was in the normal range for this count. 2021 brought some changes for counters. Rather than groups covering 6 large areas we had groups covering 12 smaller areas (6 individuals and 6 “Social pods).
We recorded some all-time high individual counts;
- 4,528 Cackling Goose,
- 1332 Mallard Ducks,
- 19 Canvasback,
- 56 Anna’s Hummingbird,
- 35 Common Raven,
- 18 Brown Creeper,
- 24 Bewick’s Wren,
- 2 White-breasted Nuthatch,
- 33 Cedar Waxwing, and
- 202 Golden-crowned Sparrow.
Also, we had 6 count week birds Pileated Woodpecker, Wood Duck, Northern Harrier, Western Meadowlark, Horned Grebe, and Common Loon.
Thank you to all our field observers and feeder watchers.
This is the final I think after making a few changes due to feedback I got from the first draft. A few miss-placed numbers meant that I had to take away the Band-tailed Pigeon and White-tailed Kite but added a Green Heron.