West Humber Naturalists held its 29th Christmas Bird Count on December 20 in the Kleinburg / Vaughn / Caledon and Brampton areas. Twenty-nine participants and 6 feeder watchers observed 54 species and 9,691 individual birds. Conditions for the count were ideal with temperatures around the freezing point, no snow and light winds. The number of species is just below the average of 55 for the count but the number of individuals was well below the average of 12,300.
There were no new species this year but we did record our second Bald Eagle. Other notables included Northern Goshawk (2) and Common Raven (2). Notable misses included Ruffed Grouse and Pine Siskin. Low numbers were recorded for all owl species (4), Common Redpoll (1) and Cedar Waxwing (61). Good numbers of raptors were found including Red-tailed Hawk (92) and Kestrel (12). A shortage of open water in the circle limited the number of waterbirds and gulls recorded, with only three species of ducks and geese and 3 gull species. Thank you to all of the route leaders and participants, Bob Noble _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
