Springing to Life 2010The annual Springing to Life event at the BLESS platform was conducted by Alan Hingston on April 17th who was joined by Dan Stoker on April 24th. Thanks to these gentlemen for continuing to gather data on the species that visit Big Lake in the spring. Dan has provided the following update for 2010. The 2010 results were down in total numbers significantly from April counts in the last three years. The lower numbers are believed to be indicative of the earlier onset of warmer weather this year which saw larger flocks of American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Canada Geese, Northern Shoveller and Lesser Scaup already further north at the time of our event. Of note were the presence of some later-arriving species such as Swamp Sparrow (first time counted), Wilson's Snipe (first time counted) and Yellow-headed Blackbird (only second time counted on the Springing to Life event). The 46 participants that took part on April 17th was the second largest event participant number for the last 11 count days. Weather was definitely a factor as it always is for this event. A non-bird event highlight was the sighting of five moose in total. The data for the 71 species that now make up the list of species seen over the last six years.
The data in a PDF file.
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