Luther Marsh Christmas Bird Count
Date: January 12, 2026 at 1:31:40 PM EST
from: “birdnews@ontbirds.ca”
Last year in 2024, we had a trial Luther Marsh bird count. Birds Canada approved our application for a new circle, and we had the first official Luther Marsh Christmas Bird Count on Thursday 2024 December 18. Eighteen birders in six teams participated. The weather forecast was for a high of 5 degrees (after weeks of bitter cold); what we didn’t expect was the biting wind, up to 45 km/hour.
The birders clocked 31 hours, drove 415.5 km and walked 5.2km. In total we had 33 species and 1,962 birds. As yet we don’t have any bird feeder watches.
Highlights included many small flocks of Snow Buntings, 60 Cedar Waxwings, 82 Bohemian Waxwings, 45 Common Redpolls, some Pine Grosbeaks, one Evening Grosbeak and a bird feeder by the road that had 100 Goldfinch (and little else).
Russ McGillivray, Headwaters Nature Compiler
HN CBC Results Luther Marsh 2025Dec
Caledon Christmas Bird Count Results
Date: January 12, 2026 at 1:38:26 PM EST
from: “birdnews@ontbirds.ca”
This year was the 34th count for our circle which includes most of Caledon, Orangeville and parts of Erin, and Mono. The bird count was on Friday 2026 January 2. The temperature was -7°C with significant wind at times. This was the coldest count since 2017. Only the largest streams were open so there were few waterfowl, and this substantially cut the number of birds counted.
Twenty-seven field observers took part, lower than the 39 last year. However, we more than doubled the number of feeder watchers at 8. Field observers logged 46.5 hours and covered 637 km driving or on foot.
2,598 birds were counted, the lowest count since 2013 (average 3,645 in the prior five years). We found 39 species, which is slightly below average. Two species were found only on the Feeder Watch – Brown Creeper and Purple Finch.
There were three high counts – Bald Eagle (4, tied with 2021), Red Breasted Nuthatch (47, previous 38 in 2022) and Juncos (346, previous 335 in 2017). Absent were any Gulls, Owls, Kingfishers, Bluebirds, Song Sparrows or Pine Siskins.
Russ McGillivray, Headwaters Nature Compiler
HN CBC Results Caledon 2025
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