Pigeons beat Coots 240 to 239 in the 10th Annual Echo Park Lake Bird Count

This past Sunday found bird lover Judy Raskin and 20 other volunteers at Echo Park Lake counting and taking note of the bird population as part of the annual Christmas Bird Count organized by the Audubon Society. Raskin and 20 other volunteers, including students from Urban Semillas, counted a total of 1,025 birds and 36 species in a 2-1/2 hour period, according to preliminary results. For anyone who has dodged pigeon poop in the park, it’s not surprisingly to find out that Rock Pigeons were the most common bird, with 240 counted (versus 146 in the previous census). Coming in a close second at 239 birds were American Coots. There were also 76 Western Gulls, 48 American Wigeons (ducks) and 13 Yellow Parakeets. Also present was a Spotted Sand Piper, which usually is found hopping around in mud flats or sand, and, for the fifth year in a row, a Ross’s Goose.

The goose normally migrates down from the Arctic but this one bird has apparently made Echo Park Lake it’s permanent home, Raskin said. “I guess he thought Echo Park was a nice place.”

Photo by TheCornballer/Flickr