Hello Everyone, The 33rd Wallaceburg CBC took place yesterday, December 27th. Temperatures were a pleasant 2 to 4 degrees Celsius; we had a bit of light rain in the afternoon. Strong SE winds were felt throughout the day, making hearing the birds difficult. The warmer temperatures, open water everywhere and lack of snow cover, combined with the strong winds made for fewer than average numbers overall.
Here's a brief summary: Twenty-two participants and 3 feeder watchers found 78 species on the count day, which is a bit below the average of just under 80 over the last 10 years. A new species to our CBC this year was NORTHER ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, a total surprise found by Blake Mann at the sewage treatment plant. This brings our cumulative total for the 33 years to 142 species. We had high counts for the following 4 species this year: TUNDRA SWAN 4505 (all but 5 found on Walpole Island........previous high of 1320) BALD EAGLE 12 (previous high of 11) RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH 19 (previous high of 9) FIELD SPARROW 6 (previous high of 3) and we tied one other: CACKLING GOOSE 9 So far, we have tallied 6 species that were seen during Count Week only (3 days prior and 3 days after but not seen on count day): GREAT HORNED OWL, MERLIN, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, AMERICAN ROBIN, LAPLAND LONGSPUR and COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. Perhaps there will be more waterfowl or other species seen in the coming 3 days. It certainly is notable that we missed GREAT HORNED OWL on this count, as it represents the first time this bird has been missed on count day since 1987. This, despite the fact that our owl groups tallied 7 hours and 115 km in total. We are sure that the wind paid a part in this, as there were 2 calling together on a calm Christmas morning at my first stop on the count. Low counts were experienced for the following species: RING-BILLED GULL 6 (ties last year's record low), TUFTED TITMOUSE 10 (our lowest since 1992), SNOW BUNTING 1 (lowest since 0 in 1988), NORTHERN CARDINAL 84 (lowest since 1992). Finally, a few thank you's are in order. Thanks to Wendy and Becky Cornelis for once again providing a fantastic hot meal after our long count day. A huge thanks to Georgette Cornelis for again providing her house for the meal and compilation and also for being such a welcoming host. *Steve CharbonneauCompiler Wallaceburg CBC* _______________________________________________ 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
