The seventh Linwood CBC was held today, December 30th. Unlike many of our
previous counts, weather today was quite favourable. Temperature ranged from a
low of minus 4 to a high of minus 8 degrees Celsius. Winds were generally light
(<20km/hr) and were for the most part out of the west. Visibility was good,
which is key for this count. 26 participants gave the count the best coverage
yet. 22 record highs and 2 record low were recorded. A total of 55 species
(previous record high of 54 species in 2008) plus 9 count week species (!)
brings the total to 64 species seen throughout the count circle! A total of 84
species have been seen over the counts history.
No new species were found on count day, however 3 new species were seen during
the count week period.
Red-breasted Merganser - 1 drake and 2 females were observed as recently as the
28th on Conestoga Lake (its now frozen solid)
Long-tailed Duck - 1 female on Conestoga Lake on the 29th
Iceland Gull - up to 2 first-winter birds were seen below Conestoga Dam as
recent as yesterday
Unusual species:
Greater Scaup - CW, 4 birds on Conestoga Lake December 29th
Turkey Vulture - 10 birds in groups of 1,1, and 8 (2nd count record, HC)
Glaucous Gull - 1
Snowy Owl - 1
Common Raven - 3 (HC)
Lapland Longspur - 11 (2nd record, HC - most of these birds were with the large
redpoll flocks)
Pine Grosbeak - CW (14 birds @ Conestoga Lake on December 28th)
White-winged Crossbill - 6
Hoary Redpoll - 12 !!! all seen in the huge C. Redpoll flocks (see below) (HC,
3rd record)
The Linwood circle was created to document the high raptor numbers, and this
year was no exception.
Bald Eagle - 3
Northern Harrier - 8 (HC)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 6 (HC)
Cooper's Hawk - 3
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1, this is the same bird which has wintered consecutively
for the past 10 winters
Red-tailed Hawk - 127 (HC)
Rough-legged Hawk - 113 (2nd highest count)
American Kestrel - 10
Merlin - 1 (2nd record)
Unusually high numbers:
Eastern Screech-Owl - 36 (birds were extremely responsive today - I'm not sure
what was going on -> weather, moon?)
Horned Lark - 1365 (our previous high was 137)
Snow Bunting - 6277 (our 2nd highest count total)
Common Redpoll - 2465 (!!!) (previous high was 79)
The redpolls seemed to be in the far west and northern edges of the count
circle. It was quite incredible to see the numbers involved, and quite
satisfying looking through them. Had the observers been able to look at all the
redpolls involved, its no doubt there would have been considerably higher
numbers of Hoaries.
Total individual birds - 19,892 (HC, beats our previous high by about 120
birds...).
If you would like any additional information, please email me privately.
Happy New Years,
Ken Burrell
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