The Minden circle is located on the southwest corner of Haliburton County on the extreme south edge of the Canadian Shield. When I started the count in 1967, there were two participants and no feeder watchers. This year there were 24 field observers and about 25 feeder watchers.
Deep snow deposited from streamers off Georgian Bay combined with very cold temperatures in the days leading up to the count, resulted in a reduction in gull and waterfowl numbers. Gull Lake was mainly open in deeper sections of the lake, so some waterfowl did remain there. The Gull River flowing though Minden into Gull Lake remains open due to a power dam just north of town. Species total for this year stands at 44, which is about average for recent counts. There were no new species for the count, leaving the 50-year total at 105 species. Highlights included 83 Bohemian Waxwings, 2nd highest ever, feeding on winterberry and highbush cranberry and a Horned Grebe on Gull Lake. Unusual was the fact that one of the three kingfishers on Gull river was a female, found along part of the river with sandy banks where they nest in summer. The most abundant finch was American Goldfinch with more than 1100. Evening Grosbeaks numbers were down from last year with some feeders having small flocks and others none. There was a single flock of 30 Pine Grosbeaks, and a total of 12 Pine Siskins reported from two feeders. No crossbills, redpolls or Purple Finches were found. Numbers for Ruffed Grouse (2) and Golden-crowned Kinglet (1) were unusually low. Dennis Barry, 338 Crystal Beach Blvd. Whitby, Ontario L1N 9Z7 905-725-2116 _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - 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 Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
