2016 Swan & Eagle Count

The North Okanagan Swan & Eagle Count was held on Sunday, January 17. The day looked promising at the beginning, but soon deteriorated and did not improve until the afternoon. After two days of snow, another couple centimetres fell in the morning which was mostly snow, but some areas also saw rain. The temperature ranged from 0*C to +2*C. Twenty four people covered the seven survey routes that included Kalamalka, Okanagan, Mara and Mabel lakes (from Lumby and at Kingfisher), as well as waterways and landscapes along the routes.

The Bald Eagles seem to be doing well and it is always a pleasure to see one majestically perched on a tree or flying overhead. There were 169 tallied for the day. This is higher than the average of 146 over the past four years. It was surprising to see so many adult birds compared to immatures. This year the immatures figured only about 20% of the counted Bald Eagles compared to the average of about 33% over the last four years. It was also a welcome occurrence to be able to include a Golden Eagle in this year’s tally. This is the second year in a row that a Golden Eagle was sighted during the mid-January count.

Once again, there were no Tundra Swans sighted during the count, but the graceful Trumpeter Swans were sighted in many locations. The number of Trumpeter Swans recorded this year (160) is higher than the past four years where the average number was about 100 swans. The number of immatures tallied (37) represented about 23% of the swans which is in line with the ratio of the previous four years.

Many other wildlife sightings were enjoyed by the teams during their outing which included Townsend Solitaire, Evening Grosbeak, Rough-legged Hawk, varied waterfowl, dozens of Red-tailed Hawk, and even a cougar print.

2016 was the 36th annual swan count and 22nd annual eagle count in the Vernon region. Datasets like these, which go back several decades now, emphasize the value of the naturalists’ interest and perspective of nature as well as the importance of citizen science projects that allow us to know a little more about nature. Thank you to all those involved in this year’s count and we look forward to those who would be interested to join the effort on another occasion.

Year / Trumpeter Swans / Bald Eagles / Golden Eagle
Adult / Immature / Total / Adult / Immature / Total / Adult
2016 / 123 / 37 / 160 / 134 / 35 / 169 / 1
2015 / 89 / 27 / 116 / 88 / 51 / 139 / 2
2014 / 78 / 7 / 85 / 102 / 44 / 146 / 0
2013 / 43 / 13 / 56 / 104 / 42 / 146 / 0
2012 / 103 / 36 / 139 / 100 / 52 / 152 / 0

Tallies compiled by: Aaron M. Deans, Executive Director Allan Brooks Nature Centre,

and North Okanagan Naturalists’ Club Member