Good evening,
The Third Annual Richmond Christmas Bird Count (ONRI) took place 28 December 2018. Located in the southern portion of the city of Ottawa, the count has Richmond moe at less as its centre of mass, and includes the communities of Munster, Stittsville, Kanata, and Barrhaven. There is substantial farm and forest land, as well as more heavily populated urban and suburban areas.
The weather was less than satisfactory for the count day. The morning started in the negatives, with freezing rain early in the day before “warming up” and creating an extremely foggy afternoon with visibility limited to less than 100m in some areas.
There was a record high number of participants at 24, who tallied 47 species totaling 5389 individual birds. Numbers markedwith a (+) ior (-) ndicates an increase or decrease of 100 or more, repecectively. This was a great year for Common Redpoll, with over 500 being reported for the first time for the count period, and we also had our first Eastern Screech and Barred Owls. A dotable miss were Greater Black-backed Gulls(1 compared to 30 last year). The complete list is at the bottom of this email.
Due to the weather, Snowy Owls were scarce on count day, though the area can produce decent sightings on fair-weather days, I am very pleased with the count, and am thankful for all who have participated and have been stalwart over the last three years.
For next year, thank you in advance for the offers to participate. Please feel free to contact me at any time; with sage advise from my wife, I have created an email address of onri....@gmail.com for count related email as well as an ONRI CBC Facebook page to keep all the observers informed and up-to-date with future counts count. Here is hoping for a long and successful run.
Any errors are mine in the reporting of details are mine.
| Species | Total |
| Mallard | 565 + |
| Ruffed Grouse | 2 |
| Wild Turkey | 274 - |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 8 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 2 |
| Herring Gull | 5 |
| Greater Black-backed Gull | 1 |
| Rock Pigeon | 746 + |
| Mourning Dove | 140 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 30 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 24 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 7 |
| Northern Shrike | 1 |
| Blue Jay | 136 |
| American Crow | 1,185 + |
| Common Raven | 13 |
| Horned Lark | 5 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 476 + |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 11 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 69 |
| American Robin | 4 |
| European Starling | 495 + |
| Snow Bunting | 93 + |
| American Tree Sparrow | 51 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 115 |
| Northern Cardinal | 75 |
| American Goldfinch | 76 |
| 4,609 | |
| Sector specific sightings (write-in's) | |
| House Finch | 4 |
| Brown Creeper | 1 |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 2 |
| Am Black Duck | 16 |
| Canada Goose | 8 |
| Snowy Owl | 9 |
| House Sparrow | 54 |
| Song Sparrow | 1 |
| Brown Headed Cowbird | 8 |
| Evening Grosbeak | 98 |
| Common Redpoll | 501 + |
| Pine Grosbeak | 27 |
| Bohemian Waxwing | 43 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 1 |
| Barred Owl | 1 |
| Cedar Waxwig | 1 |
| American Kestrel | 1 |
| Great-blue Heron | 1 |
| Coopers Hawk | 2 |
| Eastern Screech Owl | 1 |
| 780 | |
| 5,389 |
Bill Mountan
Munster, ON
_______________________________________________ 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
