A stalwart volunteer in the Annual Christmas Bird Count in Prince George says this year’s count smashed previous years’ records.
Cathy Antoniazzi of the Prince George Naturalists Club has organized the Annual Christmas Bird Count in Prince George Lheidli T’enneh since 1997. Running like clockwork since 1968, held this year on January 5th, never has the event seen this many birds.
A total of 19,641 avians were counted, smashing the previous year’s number of 6,554.
Good weather, strong volunteer numbers, and perhaps most importantly, an abundance of food was available, says Antoniazzi. She added “Mind you 11,000 of those were Bohemian Waxwings,” a species which only numbered 322 last year, with a prior record of 8,667.
Cautioning excitement, she notes, “Just because we found lots of birds, doesn’t mean that the actual numbers of birds are up. They were up. Here. For this winter. On that day.”
Story also available on frequencynews.ca, 88.7 FM in Prince George—Lheidli T’enneh, and cfur.ca/listen-live Mon-Fri 7:30am & 5pm PST
CFUR Radio Society’s journalist, Ian Gregg is funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) through the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC).