Birders,

Here are the results from the Brookmere Breeding Bird Survey
route, south of Merritt, B.C. I surveyed the route this year on July
7th, the latest permissible date.

The Brookmere route, which I have surveyed 16 times starting in
1974, starts 4 miles (6.4 km) up the Mount Thynne Forest Service Road,
just south of the village of Brookmere. It then goes through
Brookmere, down the Coldwater River Road (parallelling BC Highway 5),
then turns east up the Voght Valley Road. It terminates at Harrison
Lake, a small reservoir west of Aspen Grove, which is always loaded
with birds. The altitude ranges from about 760 to 1370 m (2500 to
4500 feet). It begins in subalpine spruce-fir forest with Pine
Grosbeaks, Varied and Hermit Thrushes, and Winter Wrens, and ends up
among Common Loons, Black Terns, Killdeer, Spotted Sandpipers, and
(some years) Rusty Blackbirds. Along the way, it samples extensive
areas of Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine forest, irrigated alfalfa
fields, aspen groves, willow shrub thickets, and some riparian
cottonwood stands. The species total has ranged from 67 to 79 species.

In a previous posting, I mumbled that maybe my ears were starting
to give out. If so, you could not prove it from the Brookmere BBS
results. The species total, at 76, was well above average, and the
total of individuals (646) only a little below average. Except for a
few species (Townsend's Warbler, most flycatchers), song activity was
high throughout the morning. Despite the fact that I had tallied a
total of 113 species before on this route, I found two new ones: Great
Horned Owl (2) and Pygmy Nuthatch (4). Also, Yellow-headed Blackbird
and Canada Goose (!) were seen for only the second time. The only
"bad miss" was American Crow, which I missed for only the second time.
(Who needs crows anyway? All they do on BBS routes is drown out other
birds with their cawing!)

Complete results are as follows (with long-term averages in
parentheses):

Common Loon 5 (1.9)
Canada Goose 12 (0.9)
Mallard 1 (1.3)
Red-tailed Hawk 1 (1.7)
American Kestrel 1 (1.2)
Sora 1 (0.4)
Killdeer 1 (3.5)
Common Snipe 17 (11.6)
Spotted Sandpiper 5 (4.3)
Black Tern 2 (1.4)
Great Horned Owl 2 (0.1)
Rufous Hummingbird 2 (2.2)
Red-naped Sapsucker 15 (10.5)
Downy Woodpecker 1 (0.4)
Hairy Woodpecker 2 (2.4)
Northern Flicker 10 (9.9)
Pileated Woodpecker 2 (1.3)
Olive-sided Flycatcher 5 (3.7)
Western Wood-Pewee 2 (5.7)
Willow Flycatcher 9 (12.2)
Hammond's Flycatcher 8 (11.2)
Dusky Flycatcher 17 (27.1)
Eastern Kingbird 2 (1.0)
Tree Swallow 11 (12.0)
Violet-green Swallow 12 (3.9)
Cliff Swallow 25 (38.4)
Barn Swallow 5 (6.5)
Steller's Jay 3 (1.0)
Common Raven 6 (7.2)
Black-capped Chickadee 2 (2.1)
Mountain Chickadee 8 (10.1)
Red-breasted Nuthatch 15 (10.3)
Pygmy Nuthatch 4 (0.3)
House Wren 9 (7.3)
Winter Wren 2 (2.9)
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3 (4.8)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6 (11.6)
Mountain Bluebird 14 (7.1)
Townsend's Solitaire 4 (3.1)
Veery 3 (4.3)
Swainson's Thrush 24 (36.1)
Hermit Thrush 2 (5.1)
American Robin 46 (35.1)
Varied Thrush 1 (1.7)
Cedar Waxwing 11 (6.7)
European Starling 13 (23.3)
Cassin's Vireo 7 (7.0)
Warbling Vireo 24 (17.9)
Red-eyed Vireo 1 (2.0)
Orange-crowned Warbler 11 (11.9)
Nashville Warbler 2 (0.9)
Yellow Warbler 22 (24.1)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 14 (21.1)
Townsend's Warbler 4 (10.9)
Northern Waterthrush 6 (9.8)
MacGillivray's Warbler 16 (14.1)
Common Yellowthroat 3 (4.5)
Western Tanager 23 (15.3)
Black-headed Grosbeak 1 (0.3)
Spotted Towhee 4 (0.6)
Chipping Sparrow 15 (18.3)
Vesper Sparrow 5 (10.7)
Savannah Sparrow 5 (5.7)
Song Sparrow 20 (19.9)
Lincoln's Sparrow 3 (1.3)
Dark-eyed Junco 22 (19.5)
Red-winged Blackbird 9 (9.5)
Western Meadowlark 4 (1.0)
Yellow-headed Blackbird 1 (0.1)
Brewer's Blackbird 4 (8.2)
Brown-headed Cowbird 15 (11.1)
Pine Grosbeak 2 (1.0)
Cassin's Finch 3 (4.7)
Red Crossbill 10 (19.1)
Pine Siskin 35 (34.9)
Evening Grosbeak 3 (6.4)


TOTAL: 76 species, 646 individuals

In most previous years, I have often found a family group of Rusty
Blackbirds at Harrison Lake, either during the survey or just after
completing it. No luck this year. The dead trees around the east end
of the lake, where the blackbirds were usually seen in the past, have
mostly rotted and fallen into the lake, and the habitat seems less
suitable. However, there is still lots of suitable habitat near
Englishmen Lake and Harmon Lake, just a bit farther north on the Kane
Valley road, and the Rusties can usually be found there with a bit of
effort.


Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, B.C.
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico,ca