Troy MT had their CBC on January 1 2022. Weather was tough with 8-16” of snow and temperatures ranging from –11 to +10 degrees with little or no sun. Saving grace was there was little wind. We had 19 Field observers ranging from 5 years old to just plain old.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Troy area our count circle resembles more of an amoeba than a circle due to geographic barriers. It was too cold this year to float the river and the river was running very high so little life (waterfowl) were using it. Total species for count day came to 47 with 3 additional species (GBH, Merlin and Sharp-shinned Hawk).
Highlight species wise were a Varied Thrush settling in on a flowering crab with its frozen berries, Killdeer and Snipe. Usual birds missing from this years count were Gray Jay, American Goldfinch, Northern Pygmy Owl and House Sparrow (No loss there).
As usual for our count, the town area held most of our species due to the lack of wetlands and agriculture that our circle holds.
Donald M Jones