(For more information about Yukon Christmas Bird Counts see this page on our website: https://yukonbirds.ca/yukon-christmas-bird-counts/) The 2023 Whitehorse Christmas Bird Count was both remarkable and rather ordinary. The weather was remarkably warm, as it has been all fall and for most of the past year – a sign of things to come no doubt. December 2023 was a full 10 degrees C warmer than December 2022. There was very little snow on the ground and plenty of open water. Together, these conditions should make life relatively easy for our resident birds – no pressing need to mob feeders during ..read more

2023 marked the second full-on Birdathon since we (mostly) emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Once again it was a pleasure for everyone to be able to gather socially for dinner after the birdwatching dust cleared! Tired Birdathon participants gathered at Rotary Park on Saturday evening to share stories and a meal. Fortunately the cold wind was kept at bay by a clever windbreak of tarps (on the right) erected by John Meikle and Paul Warner!Results Total participants: 32 Number of people attending the post-Birdathon BBQ:  28 Total Species observed: 139 (Summary Tables with names of a ..read more

Spring is here! All you recovering cabin-fever cases should keep an eye out for these Trumpeter (and a few Tundra) Swans marked with neck collars in Washington State over the past few winters. If you see a marked swan, record as many details as you can and report it as described in this document. Photos are great if you can get them. WashingtonSwanCollarsFlyer_March2022_FINAL The post Watch for marked Trumpeter and Tundra Swans this Spring! appeared first on Yukon Bird Club ..read more

March is the time to look for our first young birds of the calendar year in the Yukon. A number of our resident birds are already busily preparing to nest: Raven, Great Horned Owl, Boreal Owl, Canada Jay, Bald Eagle. But the earliest of all are crossbills! As this article from our Spring 2021 Yukon Warbler explains, crossbills can and will nest at virtually any time of year if there is enough food (spruce and pine cones) available. Previously we’ve had juvenile Red Crossbills appear at feeders in March.  Often the math tells us they must have been nest building, incubating eggs, and even ..read more

Bohemian Waxwings were everywhere this year! (photo Syd Cannings) The 2022 Whitehorse Christmas Bird Count was very successful in spite of the weather being a tad windy and cold. There were 44 participants, including 28 different parties and 11 feeder-watchers. All told, participants counted 6,822 birds of 29 species — compared with 4,162 birds of 24 species last year (the long-term average is 25 species). After a very warm fall season, the Boxing Day count was preceded by a week of brutal cold, including 20 December when the mercury dropped to -42.1 C and topped out at -36.1. Quite a few oddb ..read more

Harlequin Ducks are late migrants, but they can be a bit hard to find by Birdathon time at the end of May. Kim Selbee found this amorous pair near Mayo on Friday evening. (Kim Selbee) Well, after a couple of pretty weird years, the Yukon Bird Club is back in normal field trip operating mode this year, including a fully-fledged Helmut Grünberg Yukon Birdathon held on 27-28 May – complete with an IN PERSON potluck dinner on Saturday evening after the 24 hours of birding was finished.  This was a pleasant change from two years of Zoom meetings which made it very difficult to share any delici ..read more

It’s been my passion – and I’m sure I’m not alone – to watch the spring progress each year, and to think about how each year compares with the ones before. This is of concern to many, many people these days as climate change strengthens its grip on our part of the world. I’ve been watching the special open water areas in the Yukon Southern Lakes that are so important to our early bird migrants, especially the Trumpeter Swans. Almost every spring since 1986 I have flown around in an airplane and taken pictures of these places on the same dates: April 24 and May 8. I talk about that photo record ..read more