by Don Jones, compiler

The Troy Christmas Bird count was scheduled to be on December 30th 2017 but was postponed one day (the 31st) as the Troy area experienced a large snowstorm dumping 14+ inches of snow. Due to the change in count dates, we lost a number of participants due to conflicts. We still managed to pull together 12+ folks to cover our count area and a few feeder watchers. Our count has never really resembled a circle but this year it looked more like a snake that had just eaten. We could only go about 1/2 mile east or west of our center but thankfully for county and state roads that were plowed, we were able to make it to our most northern and Southern points. Snow levels varied from 20-30+ inches.

Our total species count was 47 with two species in Count Week (Sharp-shinned Hawk & White-throated Sparrow). Birds that were common to previous counts but absent this year were both Evening and Pine Grosbeaks, Great Horned Owl, Robin and Pygmy Owl. In previous years we have had a couple of hardy individuals boat the Kootenai River, but snow and Ice prevented that this year and our count suffered as the Kootenai is about our only open water and most of it was not covered or not covered well. The potluck was great that night at our house and we’ll do better and have even more fun next year.