On Saturday December 30th, we completed our annual Christmas Bird Count. The Numbers: 23 + 7 participants; 715 km driven; 10.5 km walked; 2.5 hrs owling; -14ºC minimum; 38 species overall; estimated 3983 individual birds overall; most populous: American Crow 931, Snow Bunting 740, European Starling 342, Dark-eyed Junco 335, American Goldfinch 300, Black-Capped Chickadee 272, Wild Turkey 223, least seen: Ruffed Grouse 1, Northern Harrier 1, Sharp-shinned Hawk 1, Cooper’s Hawk 1, Snowy Owl 1, Belted Kingfisher 1, Northern Shrike 1, Christmas Bird Count participants: (23 participants): (Area 1): Ron Jasiuk, Bill, Mike, Russ, Cynthia, Leo; (Area 2): Mark Whitcombe, Jerry, Paul, Katherine; (Area 3): Linda Lockyer, Mike, Dilys, Debby; (Area 4): Ron Ritchie, Mary Lynn, Betty; (Area 5): Dawn Renfrew, Darcie; (Area 6): Rob Best, Kevin, Anne-Marie, Suzanne Christmas Feeder Watch participants: (7 participants): Doug & Jane, Jean, Joan, Robin, Rachel, Liz Comments (by a botanist …) Of… Read more »
Our annual Christmas Bird Count will be on Saturday December 30th, 2017! Ron Jasiuk and Russ McGillivary are organizing this year’s event. We have sent out details and invitations earlier, so if you’ve missed them, contact us. Contact us! UCFNC Christmas Bird Count areas Across North America naturalists have been participating in Christmas Bird Counts for well over 100 years. One of the first participants was a Toronto birder! The first UCFN Christmas Bird Count was conducted on 12 Dec 1987. So this is the 30th anniversary. The data gathered by volunteers is used to track changes in populations and ranges of bird species. It’s also a great opportunity to enjoy and become familiar with winter birds. Our bird count area includes Alton, Erin, Inglewood, Orangeville, Mono Mills, and the surrounding areas. The bird count area is divided into six sub-areas each of which is covered by a team. As well,… Read more »
Thanks to the more than 20 people who turned out to do our annual Christmas Bird Count on Friday December 30th! Special thanks to Ron Jasiuk and Russ McGillivary for their organization and to Kevin and Carol for hosting the fine potluck dinner afterwards! Russ will compile the results from our six different teams and from the others who contributed Feeder Watch data. We’ve not got a preliminary guess as to how many species nor how many individual birds we say. What we can say is that because of our cold weeks earlier in December there was no open water other than in streams and creeks so that our large numbers of waterfowl from last year were all but absent this year. It’s not about bigger or better numbers — it’s about getting as detailed an inventory each year to build into larger patterns. Let’s see how this the numbers from this year… Read more »
