This past Christmas, members of the Shuswap Naturalist Club and guests spent the day identifying and counting birds as part of the Salmon Arm Christmas Bird Count (CBC).
On Sunday Dec. 15, field-teams scoured bird habitats from dawn-to-dusk within 12 kilometres of the count’s centre point within the city. Additional observers watched birds at their home feeders and later submitted observations.
Combining both science and fun, participation in the Christmas counts is open to anyone – from seasoned bird experts to first-time birdwatchers. Care is taken to divide the groups into teams including experienced birders to help out those still working on their birding skills.
My first CBC was as a teenager in Southern Ontario, taking part in the Long Point CBC along the north shore of Lake Erie in 1965. As I recall, two of us were dropped off (we were too young to drive) at a ravine leading to the lake with the instructions to spend the day hiking to Lake Erie counting birds, and to meet the rest of the team at a restaurant not far from the creek mouth.
We not only had a great day of hiking, we saw a species seen by no-one else, including a rare winter sighting of an Eastern Phoebe (a flycatcher) foraging along an open stretch of water.
Fast forward to now, on behalf of the naturalist club I’m the count compiler for Salmon Arm. This year more than 30 people joined us and we collectively identified 66 species totalling 7,907 individual birds on the 15th. We saw an additional 11 species during count week – three days before and after count-day.
With our amazingly low snow year and open water at both Shuswap and Gardom lakes, it wasn’t a surprise that Canada goose topped the bird list with a tally of 1,684 birds. Second and third places went to Mallards (1,110) and RockPigeons (531).
Observers also added two species never before recorded in the official record: Yellow-billed Loon (1) and Eurasian Wigeon (5). It didn’t surprise anyone that black-capped chickadees were seen by all teams.
At the end of the day, we gathered for a social to chat about the best observations of the day and to submit our individual team reports. As the compiler, I combined these data and submitted our group report to Birds Canada for an official review. After the review, this information becomes part of a permanent record that includes all Christmas Bird Counts from across Canada.
Christmas Bird Counts are a great example of citizen-science in action. The data resulting from each count is uploaded in to a massive North American database that helps us track bird numbers from year-to-year. In fact, the Shuswap actually has three separate Christmas Counts held on different days for Salmon Arm, the Blind Creek-Scotch Creek area and the Enderby-Armstrong area. All counts follow the same rules and, taken together, give an even better picture of wintering bird life across the region.
Although the Salmon Arm CBC started informally in the 1970s, our official records stretch back to 1988. We are already planning our 38th count for Dec. 14, 2025. If you would like to be part of this tradition next Christmas, contact the Shuswap Naturalist Club at https shuswapnaturalist.ca/ and ask to be put on the notification list for CBC 2025.
