Each year Jackson Hole Bird and Nature Club joins birders across North America and beyond in the largest and oldest Citizen Science project in the world, the Christmas Bird Count. December 18, 2021 was a cold day in Jackson Hole that kept some of the songbirds hidden in the brush. Our 63 counters collectively spent 81 hours to give us 45 species. We also picked up 3 species for count week: brown creeper, evening grosbeak, and dark-eyed junco.
Of interest: as with 2020, only one collared dove was seen. In contrast to last year, when we counted 297 red crossbills, in 2021 we saw none. 2020 was an excellent cone year for Douglas-fir at the lower elevations.
Below is the summary of count results in numbers seen by species. “cw” indicates those seen during count week.
American Coot 1
American Crow 2
American Dipper 15
American Goldfinch 10
Bald Eagle 18
Barrow's Goldeneye 117
Belted Kingfisher 1
Bl.-capped Chickadee 104
Black-billed Magpie 112
Brown Creeper cw
Bufflehead 32
Canada Goose 209
Clark's Nutcracker 8
Common Goldeneye 10
Common Merganser 8
Common Raven 161
Common Redpoll* 38
Downy Woodpecker 5
Eurasian collared dove 1
Evening grosbeak cw
Gadwall 37
Golden Eagle 1
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Gray Owl 1
Green-winged Teal 54
Hairy Woodpecker 3
Hooded Merganser 6
House Finch 27
House Sparrow 46
Junco-dark-eyed cw
Mallard 623 Mountain Chickadee 52
Northern Flicker 2
Northern Shrike 1
Pine Grosbeak 9
Pine Siskin 2
Red-br. Nuthatch 2
Red-tailed hawk 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Ring-necked Duck 1
Rosy Finch (grey-cr)* 1
Rough-legged Hawk 2
Short-eared owl 1
Stellers Jay 11
Trumpeter Swan 37
White-br. Nuthatch 3
Wilson's Snipe 1
The 2021 Jackson Hole Christmas Bird Count was coordinated, compiled, and reported by Susan Marsh.