The 31st SCNWA CBC was held on January 1, 2011. The day began with a lot of
rain, fog and some wind as a result of the unseasonably warm temperatures over
the ice. The afternoon was somewhat better.......at least the rain stopped by
about 2 p.m. Temperatures ranged from a high of about 11C at daybreak and
dropped to about 5C at the end of the day.
Thirteen birders scoured the area tallying a total of 80 species, slightly
higher than the average of 78.6 species over the last ten years but
significantly lower than our high of 91, which we achieved twice. Due to the
poor viewing conditions, numbers of individuals of most species was down
somewhat, resulting in only one new high count, with 12 Cooper's Hawk observed,
one more than the previous high of 11.
There was one new species added: Brown Thrasher. And while we have had Merlin
as a Count Week species in the past, we have now added it to our actual count
day list. The total species list now stands at 137.
With so much of the best habitat of the count circle made up of wetlands
adjacent to Lake St. Clair, waterfowl are a huge part of the count results. In
a really good year we have had as many as 27 waterfowl species. The previously
cold weather and very little open water this year, however, resulted in a total
of only 15 species of waterfowl, missing such species as Wood Duck, Snow Goose,
Hooded Merganser and American Wigeon. Due to the extended waterfowl hunting
season again this year, we did not have access to some of the best parts of the
count circle, likely affecting the numbers of waterfowl species.
As usual, American Crows were the most abundant species of avifauna recorded.
The municipality continues in its efforts to disperse the crows from their
roosts where conflicts with humans are a problem. However we still came up with
a respectable total of 101231 crows, down considerably from our all time high
of 159860 in 2000.
Allen Woodliffe
Chatham
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ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial
birding organization.
Send bird reports to [email protected]
For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
