Yesterday was seven and a half hours of creep, stop, scope, puzzle (what am I seeing in this flat light?), count, and record.
The weather was dark and cloudy as we commenced our 2026 Christmas Bird Count day. We were thankful it wasn’t raining, it wasn’t snowing, and it wasn’t icy.
We cover section 6 of the Christmas Bird Count Wenatchee Circle, as shown above. The southern border of that section starts just below Ohme Gardens and travels almost 10 miles west along US Highway 2 to the intersection in Cashmere by Apple Annie’s Antique Mall. Section 6 is comprised of everything north of that line, as far as you can go, up into the landscape of Burch Mountain.
This year, that covered 65 miles of roads around neighborhoods, orchards, and animal pasture. In an effort to reassure all of the neighborhood residents, as we stop and train our binoculars on their properties, we have three signs in the back windows of my car that say “Audubon Christmas Bird Count.” Most folks we encounter are friendly and wave at us. We wave back and smile.
I shouldn’t be, but I am always surprised that we never see the same thing this year as we saw the year before. When we drive up the road where we saw 50 White-crowned Sparrows last year, I’m surprised that they’re not still there! The 35 chickadees that occupied that shrubby corner last year have moved on. What’s more, the 238 California Quail that scampered across that field last year, are not still there waiting for us! Don’t they know we want to count them again?
However, this year did bring its own new surprises. It was exciting to find a total of 105 Cedar Waxwings, feasting on small berries! The orchards were full of Oregon Juncos and White-crowned Sparrows, hopping back-and-forth between the trees and the ground.
This year brought an abundance of Robins. We’ve had very few Robins on our CBC in years past, and this year we counted 112!
We love it when we find raptors on our count day! This year we had six Cooper’s Hawks, one Sharp-shinned Hawk, four Kestrels, nine Red-tailed Hawks, three Bald Eagles, and a surprise…
We spotted a bird sitting on top of a cut off Douglas fir. Fortunately, it wasn’t spooked by us as we slowly drew closer. We scoped out its markings: bigger than an AMKE, smaller than a PRFA, the shape of its head, a very faint malar stripe… could this be a Merlin? When it lifted off and flew away from the tree, and we spotted its checkered under-wing pattern, we had our confirmation of a Merlin! We’ve never seen a Merlin down in this neck of the woods, so we were extremely happy!
After the light was gone and the sun set, everyone gathered for a potluck and a review/compilation of everything that was seen. It’s always fun to chat about the day and discover what other people have encountered. Not to mention… the food is always excellent!
The stats for Section six of the 2026 Wenatchee Christmas Bird Count were 32 unique species and a total of 1,234 individual birds. Not bad for a very dark, flat-light day.