CdA Audubon YARDLIST CHALLENGE – 2016 & 2017
I have to
lead off with an apology. While I did
actually compile the Great CdA Audubon Yard List Challenge for 2016, you may
have noted it never made it to the website – that was my bad even though
Shirley did keep on me. So with that
admission out there, thought I’d some up those result before moving on to 2017.
Nine (9)
yards did actually report their lists for 2016
spotting a total of 117 species. This
was a pretty good outcome overall (10 year average = 113) considering the low
number of yards. A total of nine (9)
species were seen by everyone – the usual cast of characters (Calliope
Hummingbird, Northern Flicker, Black-capped & Mountain Chickadees,
Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, and Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)) plus a
couple of surprises (Black-headed Grosbeak and American Goldfinch). Speaking of surprises, we always have a
few. In 2016, twenty-six (26) species
showed up only in a single yard. Of
these, it is always tough to pick a “winner”, but the Purple Finch at the
Ward’s, and the White-winged Crossbill at the Zagar’s
certainly were unusual. The Buchler’s, Farr’s, and Sturts’ provided much of the
waterfowl while the Hanson’s place came through again with many Chain Lakes
specialties.
So again, I
am sorry about the slip in 2016, but now on to what we collectively saw in 2017. Once again, we had nine (9) yard participate
this year, but our total species seen dropped to 105. Contributing to this lower than average
result were several big misses, notably Pacific Wren, Swainson’s Thrush,
Nashville, McGillivray’s, Townsend’s and Wilson’s Warblers all of which had
been seen most every year for the past 17 years. Following this trend, only seven (7) species
were seen in everyone’s yard (California Quail, Northern Flicker, Black-capped
Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon), and
Pine Siskin).
Notwithstanding
this seemingly bad year, there are always bright spots that keeps this challenge
fun. This year twenty (20) species were
seen in only a single yard, a few of which had only been spotted couple of
times in the past 10 years: the Waring’s American Kestrel, the Robertson’s
Least Flycatcher, the Moen’s Northern Shrike, the Hanson’s Bewick’s Wren &
American Redstart, and the Ward’s Veery. Anna’s Hummingbirds continued to show up in
our area with a nice female (“Louise”) staying at the Janet Callen’s place for
several weeks. Finally, and always a
treat were Northern Pygmy Owls at the Sayler’s and
Sturts’ places.
Here’s to a
good year around your yard in 2018, and if you do keep track please forward
your list to me (dougward@frontier.com) to continue our successful Coeur
d’Alene Audubon Yard List Challenge.