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PROVINCIAL BIRD VOTING RESULTS

As you know voting among Natural History Society Members was conducted this fall to obtain suggestions for a Provincial Bird. Well here are the results!

Thirty-five ballots were received, each ballot listing three choices. Members Suggested breeding birds which were easily recognized, reasonably common, well distributed, and representative of Prince Edward Island. A final criterion used

in selection was the avoidance of duplication with other Provincial and State Birds.

The results are given below. As you can see the pepular choice was the Great

Blue Heron which received 62 percent or 2l of the first place votes. The Bluejay and Common Tern were also recognized as likely candidates with honourable mentions going to the Evening Grosbeak, Belted Kingfisher, Herring Gull and Red-winged Blackbird. The Provincial Bird Committee has selected these 7 birds mentioned and the Black Duck to present to the public for a larger vote. So watch for newspaper and T. V. ads to appear sometime this month. It is hoped that votes

can be received from school children across the Island.

NO. OF VOTES

lst 2nd 3rd

(3 Bts) (2 Ets) (i gt) Total Ets. Great Blue Heron 2i Bluejay A Common Tern 2 Evening Grosbeak - Belted Kingfisher Herring Gull Red-winged Blackbird Black Duck Canada Goose Song Sparrow Black-chapped Chickadee Great Cormorant Barn Swallow Great Black-backed Gull Bobolink Crow Gray (Canada) Jay Osprey White-throated Sparrow Common Flicker ' - Rose Breasted Grosbeak - Red-eyed Vireo - Spotted Sandpiper - Dark-eyed Junco - — Bronze Grackle ‘ Raven - - Snow Bunting . - - Starling - -

TOTAL 35 35 32*

II—INI

I lNNw—‘IWWC'U'IUUN

I—I—I lN—NNN I —‘-——'N—'|U'IN

I—d—_I I—fl-‘I-dlllN—‘I lN-‘l‘l

—-——-—NNNNNNwwwwtb-PWO‘O‘O‘O‘NNQKD

———-INNI

*3 persons abstained from giving a third choice

- Rosemary Curley - Fish and Wildlife Division - P. E. I.

CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT

A series of misunderstandings between the Natural History Society and Parks Canada almost caused the demise of the 1975 Christmas Bird Count. Each group thought the other was going to take the responsibility for organizing the count. Luckily, three individuals persisted and a count was done on Saturday, December 27, in the Hillsborough area (which extends from Charlottetown to Vernon River). Margaret Mallett managed to extract all the necessary information to conduct such a count from the National Park files. Winnie and David Cairns tackled the job of finding birders willing to do counts in the vari0us areas. The weather