The Holiday Beach CBC took place on Saturday, December 29th. The count includes Holiday Beach Conservation Area, Big Creek, the lower Detroit River north to LaSalle (Lower Detroit IBA), Boblo Island, and surrounding areas. 35 participants (34 in the field and 1 feeder watcher) volunteered for the Count, tallying 71 species and 18,585 individual birds. 2 additional species have also been reported for Count Week so far.
Skies were mostly cloudy all day with a little bit of sun in the early afternoon. Light flurries in the morning stopped around 8am. The temperature ranged from a low of -2C to 0C w/ light northwest winds making for comfortable birding throughout the day. There was no snow cover and no ice cover on Lake Erie or the Detroit River. In colder years with lots of ice cover, waterfowl get concentrated around the mouth of the Detroit River and areas along the lower Detroit River, which stay open year-round. This year, large rafts of diving ducks were present on the open waters of Lake Erie and many dabbling ducks within Big Creek. A few highlights from this year's count included: Mute Swan - 620 birds counted (not a positive highlight but a high count nonetheless) Tundra Swan - good count for the circle of 1,438 Canvasback - 6,898 (The Lower Detroit River IBA is an important staging area for wintering Canvasback) Redhead - 701 (mostly on the Detroit River) Common Loon - 2 off of Holiday Beach Golden Eagle - 1 adult Red-shouldered Hawk - 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1 at Holiday Beach Northern Saw-Whet Owl - one found freshly dead at the side of the road Eastern Phoebe - 2 on Boblo Island Count week birds so far include Belted Kingfisher and Merlin. Many thanks to all the Area Leaders and volunteers for their efforts and to Kory and Sarah Renaud for hosting a great roundup! Jeremy Hatt & Kory Renaud _______________________________________________ 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
