Birders:
The 36th SCNWA CBC was held on January 1. It was cloudy, windy (mostly 35-60 KM/h), slightly below freezing, with light snow flurries off and on all day. Most water was still open, and there were white-caps on Lake St. Clair most of the day. Fifteen birders tallied 85 species for the day, our fifth highest ever but well below our highest of 92. Our previous ten-year average is 80 species. Waterfowl are a significant element of this count due to the extensive marshes along Lake St. Clair. We recorded 25 species of ducks, geese and swans, totalling a little over 55,000 individuals. As usual, American Crows make up the majority of the total numbers of birds, and an estimated 125,000 individuals were noted. For information about Chatham's crow roost, check out my blog post: http://pawsnaturenuggets.blogspot.ca/2014/11/tis-season-for-crows-and-lots-of-them.html There were two new species for the count, with one each of Ross's Goose and Great Egret. This brings the cumulative total since 1981 to 137 species. There were new high totals for the following eight species (previous high) Tundra Swan-10870 (6596) Wood Duck-14 (10) Bufflehead-144 (37) Red-breasted Merganser-79 (63) Ruddy Duck-663 (470) Sandhill Crane-48 (10) Bonaparte's Gull-182 (169) Snowy Owl-18 (15) Tied high counts were for: Double-crested Cormorant-10 Golden Eagle-1 Allen Woodliffe-compiler Chatham _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
