Birders: The 39th St. Clair National Wildlife Area Christmas Bird Count was held on Jan 1, 2019. The weather started out just above freezing and by the end of the day, was just below freezing. Some light fine snow/drizzle occurred in the morning, and it was overcast all day. There was no snow cover and all water was open. North to Northwest winds were moderate to brisk most of the day.
The count circle is centred just east of SCNWA. With all of the extensive wetlands along the east shore of Lake St. Clair, water conditions will make a huge difference in the totals for this count since almost the entire rest of the count circle is large agricultural field. The extensive wetlands and adjacent Lake St. Clair is why this area is a recognized Important Bird Area. However in recent years due to the extended waterfowl hunting season, some of the prime and largest properties have not been accessible due to club member wishes to hunt on them resulting in sometimes significant adjustments to coverage. Nonetheless, this count continues to tally some excellent numbers of birds. On this day, 18 observers tallied a record 93 species, surpassing the previous high of 92 back in 2014, and well above the previous ten year average of 78. Water birds, and in particular waterfowl, often make up a large part of the results. On this day we recorded 71222 individuals of 25 species of ducks, geese and swans. Overall we totalled our highest number of individual birds at 202224, considerably higher than our previous ten year average of 142236. A massive number of ducks, mostly Mallards, arrived in the previous week to ten days. Of course American Crows continue to make up a significant portion of the total individuals, and although an exhaustive effort at counting them exiting or entering their roost was not undertaken this year, a total of 125000 crows was estimated. This is well below our high of 159860 birds recorded in 2000 when we did do a major roost count. There were new high (previous high) totals for: Ross's Goose--2 (1) American Black Duck--7560 (5370) Mallard--46851 (35800) Ring-necked Duck--215 (88) Bald Eagle--50 (27) Wild Turkey--30 (23) Northern Flicker--11 (9) Species which tied a previous high number were: Double-crested Cormorant--10 Turkey Vulture--1 Peregrine Falcon--3 Tufted Titmouse--1 Golden Eagle--1 Other highlights were: Golden Eagle, only the third time Killdeer, only the fourth time Turkey Vulture, only the fifth time Gray Catbird, only the fifth time Notable misses were: Ring-necked Pheasant, recorded on more than 80% of the counts Brewer's Blackbird, recorded on about 60% of the counts We almost missed Snow Bunting for the first time ever, but came through with one individual Two count week species included Sandhill Crane and Long-tailed Duck. There were no new species for the overall count, so the total number of species since inception in 1981 remains at 139. Allen Woodliffe, compiler Chatham _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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
