by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 31/97) - Yellowknife isn't going to run out of ravens any time soon.

Or boreal chickadees, willow ptarmigans, redpolls or a number of other species which are enjoying mild winter weather and record high numbers this winter, according to the annual Christmas bird count.

The previous best count in this area was 986 ravens, but 27 birders logged 1,004 raven sightings during their Sunday count, which means the city can look forward to many more years of power outages as the feathered creatures get themselves tangled up in electrical power lines and black out the city.

"We've never had this many species before," said Bob Bromley, a birder and biologist who headed up the count.

Chiefly because of the mild weather, the birders saw a record 13 species rather than the usual seven or eight, as well as all-time high counts of individual birds. The previous mark of 374 willow ptarmigan was eclipsed by the 477 sighted this year, while 82 boreal chickadees were seen, as opposed to a mere four during the 1996 count.

Birders broke the city and surrounding area into 13 circles, each with a radius of 11 kilometres, and counted all the birds they saw in each one. Similar counts, using similar methods, are done around the world over the Christmas season and the results published by the Audubon Society.

"If people noticed people popping up in their back yards with binocs on Sunday, they weren't doing what they looked like they were doing," Bromley joked.

The mild winter weather is one reason birds are doing as well as they are. It also makes them easier to spot, Bromley noted, because they are more active than when it is very cold.

In addition, species such as ptarmigan are nearing the natural peak of a 10-year population cycle, he said.

And although birding has the image of a sedate and safe pastime, one of the counters was shot at by a bird hunter while engrossed in the count.

The counter was unhurt, and the hunter, who originally took off, returned a short time later to make sure she was all right.