The Holiday Beach CBC took place on Tuesday, December 27th. The count includes Holiday Beach Conservation Area, Big Creek, the Lower Detroit River north to LaSalle (Lower Detroit River IBA), Boblo Island and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, Boblo Island continues to be inaccessible due to construction on the island but the rest of the count circle received good coverage. 24 participants volunteered for the count, tallying 76 species and 14,228 individual birds. The species count of 76 is four below the record high of 80 species.
Skies were mostly cloudy throughout the day w/ occasional sun. The morning was fairly calm w/ increasing southwest winds in the afternoon. Temperatures ranged from a low of -5C in the morning to -3C in the afternoon. Due to the recent winter storm, there was a lot of snow cover and all inland waters were frozen as well as Lake Erie within the count circle and most of the Detroit River except for a few small areas of open water. This resulted in significantly lower waterfowl counts (notably Mallard and Canvasback) than milder years including the absence of expected species like Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, and Red-breasted Merganser. Unquestionably, the best bird of the count was a Boreal Chickadee found by Cameron Chevalier and Michael and Steve McAllister in Memorial Woods across from Holiday Beach. This is a new species for the count and the first record for Essex County since 2005. Several record high counts were also broken this year: Great Blue Heron – 108 (previous high count of 45) Sandhill Crane – 45 (previous high count of 2) Tufted Titmouse – 29 (previous high count of 16) Winter Wren – 6 (previous high count of 5) Fox Sparrow – 5 (previous high count of 3) Brown-headed Cowbird – 954 (previous high count of 600) Purple Finch – 2 (previous high count of 1) Other notable sightings included: Snow Goose – 2 Cackling Goose – 8 (ties previous record high count) Wood Duck – 2 Ring-necked Duck – 5 (often missed on the count) Golden Eagle – 1 Bald Eagle – 51 (good number for the count) Lesser Black-backed Gull – 1 (seen on only two previous counts) Northern Saw-Whet Owl – 1 (seen on only two previous counts) American Robin – 81 (good number for the count) Eastern Phoebe – 1 (often missed on the count) Northern Cardinal – 232 (ten below the high count of 242) Good counts of several sparrow species were also tallied including American Tree Sparrow (251), Dark-eyed Junco (411), White-crowned Sparrow (15), White-throated Sparrow (86), and Song Sparrow (44). Many thanks to all the Area Leaders and volunteers for their efforts and to Kory and Sarah Renaud for hosting the roundup! Jeremy Hatt & Kory Renaud -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. Birdnews is reserved for announcements, location summaries, first of year reports, etc. To post a message on Birdnews, send an email to: [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at [email protected]. Please review posting rules and guidelines at http://ofo.ca/site/content/listserv-guidelines During the COVID-19 pandemic, all Ontario birders should be taking extra precautions and following local, provincial, and federal regulations regarding physical distancing and non-essential travel. To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
