Logan Christmas Bird Count
reported by Keith Archibald

 I enjoyed the Utah CBC reports on Birdnet and therefore thought I would let you know what was seen up North on the Logan count. We had a phenomenal day on the 14th. Our previous high was 98 species. On the tally of the night of the count, we equaled our best with 98! However, we were missing Wood duck which we have never missed. Therefore three of us went out at 10:00 PM, sneaking up and around various ponds with flashlights until we found one and broke our record with 99.

Our 60 participants spent a very mild day turning up some great birds. Waterfowl numbers and diversity were amazing with record highs on several species. Long-tailed duck and Greater Scaup were great finds.

The vole eaters were up- Red-tails, Rough-legs, Harriers, Chicken birdswere average.

Gulls were amazing. Generally the first real bad cold spells in early December sends all of our gulls your way. Most years our gull count is 0. Three Harrings Gulls. The last time we had a Herring Gull was 1983.

Dickie birds (little guys) were up and down, with a male Eastern Bluebird the highlight. The low light was an astounding estimated 60,000 Starlings passing overhead! Ten times more than any other year. Disgusting!! But all in all it was the most exciting count we've been on in 20 years.

Carry on,
Keith Archibald