From: Tom Thomas [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 10:40 AM To: 'Tom Thomas' Subject: FW: Hamilton C.B.C. results Hello, The Hamilton C.B.C. took place on Boxing Day December 26th 2011. A perfect day for counting birds if not for the stiff 20 k. northerly wind , with temperatures varying from a low of plus 1, to a high of plus 6. Skies were cloudy at first, but by mid morning the sun broke through for the rest of the day. The rivers and large bodies of water were ice free, with perhaps a thin covering of ice on some of the smaller ponds. We had a large number of participants 89, most of these were counting birds in the field , whilst others counted birds at their birdfeeders. This year (2011), the 90th anniversary of the Hamilton Christmas Bird Count, we broke the record for the number of species counted. The old record was 104, but we broke that by 1 to give us a new record total of 105. The total birds counted were 77,877, not far off our current 10 year average of 80,348 We added three species never seen previously on our Boxing Day count.... Franklin's Gull, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Unfortunately the Black-throated Gray Warbler previously seen at Bayfront Park, was not seen on the day. As we all know now, it has recently reappeared. We had new count records for the following species.....Common Loon 9 old record 6 American Wigeon 10 " 6 Northern Shoveler 179 " 134 Canvasback 1,073 " 393 Lesser Black-backed Gull 4 " 3 We equaled the record for Eastern Bluebird with 52 counted, and Fox Sparrow with a count of 2. There were low numbers for many species, far too many to mention here, but Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Mallard, Black Duck, Greater and Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Common Merganser, American Kestrel, Wild Turkey, Great Black-backed Gull, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Pileated Woodpecker, American Crow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, American Tree Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Snow Bunting, Common Redpoll, and Pine Siskin numbers were approximately 50% below the current 10 year average. Count week birds were...... Black-throated Gray Warbler, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, and Killdeer. Best Regards.......Tom Thomas. _______________________________________________ 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/
