East Kootenay, British Columbia, Canada
Rocky Mountain Naturalists
  • About / Contact
  • Join RMN
  • RMN Calendar
  • RMN Newsletter
  • RMN Blog
  • RMN Projects / Issues
  • Nature Photos by Us
  • RMN Checklists & Products
  • Christmas Bird Counts
  • Nature Education & Quiz
  • Other Websites of Interest

Bird Checklist update

13/10/2018

0 Comments

 
RDEK / RMN Bird Checklist updates to Oct 2018
Edited 14-Oct-2018 (now 314 species)
By Dianne Cooper
 
With the recent publishing of the Checklist of British Columbia Birds by British Columbia Field Ornithologist (BCFO), and the sighting of another new species in the East Kootenay, I thought I would tally up the changes over the past 2 ½ years to our newest bird checklist published in 2016.
 
The East Kootenay Bird Checklist was published May of 2016 in preparation of the BCFO meeting that month in Cranbrook.  Every BCFO member in attendance received a free copy.  Our 2016 checklist replaced the previous one published in 2003.  The earlier one covered the traditional Rocky Mountain Naturalist birding area from the US border to Canal Flats and from halfway to Creston to the Alberta boundary.  The new checklist, with the advent and popularity of eBird, covers the Regional District of East Kootenay, the “administrative” area used by eBird.
 
The BCFO checklist records 301 species in Ecoprovince #4, which includes the RDEK.  The Southern Interior Mountains ecoprovince goes north almost as far as Prince George and west to the other side of the Monashee Range, bordering on the Okanagan.  There are many species further west and north that we haven’t gotten yet.
 
36 species found in Ecoprovince # 4 have not yet been found in the RDEK.  Perhaps some of these are more likely to show up here?  Watch for:
 
Prothonotary Warbler
Crested Caracara
Northern Parula
Lucy’s Warbler
Summer Tanager
 
What will show up next!  There’s always something new!
 
The BCFO records 265 species of what we do have.
EK birds not on the BCFO checklist number 48 species.
 
At time of publishing our last checklist, we had 303 species.
Now (12 Oct 2018) we have 313 species.  We also have 4 hybrids, but we won’t count those.
Now (14 Oct 2018) we have 314 species! (see below: Species not on eBird but seen prior)
 
Species that were seen after May 2016 are:
 
Black Scoter
- Oct 2016, Wasa Lake, Dean Nicholson

Anna’s Hummingbird
- Nov 2016, Wycliffe, Lil McPhail (Dean Nicholson)

Northern Cardinal
- Nov 2017, Cranbrook, Katrin Powell (Greg Ross)

Curve-billed Thrasher
- July 2018, Canal Flats, Gord Littlejohns

Ovenbird
- Aug 2018, Fernie, Mike Bentley, Liz Creighton

Lesser Goldfinch
- Oct 2018, Wycliffe, Dianne Cooper, Joe Rothermund

 
Of course, these are all classified as “accidentals” – one or two individuals sighted in the past couple of years.  They are all recorded on eBird.
 
Species documented after May 2016 – but seen before then
 
a.  Now on eBird
These are historical records entered into eBird by people documenting their own or others’ birding journals, much like I did with Mildred White’s records.  The oldest “new” species (added after May 2016) goes back to 1984 (Pacific Golden-plover, Harmer Ridge, 26 Sep 1984, David Fraser).  The oldest “first” record on eBird goes back to 1930. 
 
Pacific Golden-plover
- 1984, Sparwood, David Fraser

Costa’s Hummingbird
- 1992, Fort Steele, Doug Brown

Connecticut Warbler
- 1997, Richard Guillet

Chestnut-sided Warbler
- 1998, Michael Preston

Black-throated Sparrow
- 1984, Mildred White

 
 
b.  Species not on eBird but seen prior
eBird records 301 species in the RDEK but not all species on our checklist are on eBird.  Missing on, or not included on eBird are:
 
Ring-necked Pheasant
- escapees, sightings discouraged on eBird

Least Bittern
- 2010, Ta Ta Creek, reported to the Breeding Bird Atlas

Yellow Rail
- 2010, Columbia Lake, Jason Rogers


Upland Sandpiper
- 1919, Newgate, Birds of British Columbia

Arctic Tern
- 1944, Columbia Lake, Walter B. Johnstone, specimen, Royal BC  Museum (RBCM)

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- 1915, Cranbrook, unknown collector, specimen, RBCM

Eastern Phoebe
- 1976, Spillimacheen, Birds of BC

Chestnut-collared Longspur
- 1930, Tobacco Plains, R. M. Anderson, specimen National Museum of Canada (NMC)

McCown’s Longspur
- 1930, Tobacco Plains, Rand, specimen, NMC

Mourning Warbler
- 1996, Spillimacheen River, unknown obs, Birds of British Columbia

Black-throated Blue Warbler
- 2002, Kimberley, Ruth Goodwin

Black-and-white Warbler
- 1971, Wasa Park, Neil Dawe, in Dawe 1971

Grasshopper Sparrow
- 1997, Cranbrook, G. Ross, G. Ross, J. Lawrence, G Davidson, in Am. Birds, Vol 51 No 4 Fall 1997

 
The BCFO Checklist lists 522 species for British Columbia and eBird records 517.
We have contributed some eBird firsts for the province.
Go to https://ebird.org/canada/region/CA-BC?yr=all and click on “First Seen” to see the BC list on eBird. 
 
There was the Northern Cardinal last winter of course, and the Curve-billed Thrasher last July.  Also (but maybe more, and it’s always changing as more people upload historical data):
 
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
- 1992, Fort Steele, Doug Brown

American Avocet
- 1967, Forst Steele, Tom Briggs

Red-headed Woodpecker
- 1998, Dutch Creek, Cam Gillies

Lewis’s Woodpecker
- 1930, Newgate, Ian McTaggart-Cowan

 
In summary, changes to our checklist to date are:
 
chart section of RDEK 2016 checklist   245
 

accidentals                                      58
 

RDEK 2016 checklist total                        303

seen and added after 15 May 2016              6
 

seen before, added after 15 May 2016         5
 

RDEK total to 13 Oct 2018                     314

 
PS  EXPLORE!
If you have an eBird account, for some fun online browsing of birds of the world, head to the eBird “Explore” tab at:
https://ebird.org/canada/explore
- hit the “Surprise me!” link under the box: “Enter species name”, to see a randomly selected world species.
- hit the “Change species” link at the top right, then in the popup, again hit “Surprise me!” to see another.
It’s so fun!  I didn’t know there was such a thing as a “Melancholy Woodpecker”!  It lives in Ghana.  Or a “Quailfinch Indigobird”.  What the heck is that!  There are only a handful of records of it on eBird and no photos.  It is from Cameroon.
 
This feature is in development on eBird and hopefully will soon be available to the general public.
 
And don’t forget the RMN Photo page at:
http://www.rockymountainnaturalists.org/nature-photos-by-us.html
 
Happy birding and um, er, naturing!
 
Dianne C.


Picture
How the Lesser Goldfinch first looked to us through the scope.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    where we talk about
    - recent field trips,
    - RMN in the news
    - flora and fauna
    - upcoming events

    Archives

    February 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2023
    March 2023
    June 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    December 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    June 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014

    Categories

    All
    Arrival
    BC Hydro
    Bears
    Birding
    Birds
    Calypso
    Checklists
    Christmas Bird Count
    Club Camp
    Collectors
    Columbia Lake
    Common Nighthawk
    Cranbrook
    Cranbrook BC
    Cranbrook Daily Townsman
    Dogs
    Ducks
    Dutch Creek
    Early Morning Birding
    EBird
    Elizabeth Lake
    Feeders
    Fernie
    Field Trip
    Fish And Wildlife Compensation Program
    Flowers
    Kimberley
    Little Big Day
    Mildred White
    Morrissey
    Moyie
    Nesting Boxes
    Orchids
    Pine
    Plants
    Podcast
    Project Feederwatch
    Rocky Mountains
    Snowshoeing
    Spring
    Ta Ta Creek
    The Buttes
    Townsman
    Turtles
    Wasa
    Western Painted Turtle
    Wildlife
    Wildsafe
    Winter
    Wycliffe

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.