The 48th Minden CBC was held on Sunday, December 14. Winds were light and
temperatures just slightly above freezing.
Bird numbers were down, due partly to a lack tree seeds and
cones. So far there are 46 species recorded.
Highlights included a female Wood Duck at Moore Falls on Hwy
#35, the 5th count record, a male Red-bellied Woodpecker at a feeder north
of Minden, 2nd record and a Hermit Thrush along the Milburne Road, remote
from any residences, 2nd. count record.
New for the count was an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull
photographed at the Scotch Line dump. (2 kilometres north from Minden on #35
and one kilometre west on Scotch Line)
Hi, everyone,
The 48th Minden CBC was held on Sunday, December 14. Winds were light and
temperatures just slightly above freezing.
Bird numbers were down, due partly to a lack tree seeds and
cones. So far there are 46 species recorded.
Highlights included a female Wood Duck at Moore Falls on Hwy
#35, the 5th count record, a male Red-bellied Woodpecker at a feeder on Bob
Lake northwest of Minden, 2nd record and a Hermit Thrush along the Milburne
Road, remote from any residences, 2nd. count record.
New for the count was an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull
photographed at the Scotch Line dump. (2 kilometres north from Minden on #35
and one kilometre west on Scotch Line)
High numbers included a record 71 Golden-crowned Kinglets; most chickadee
flocks had one to three birds accompanying, 3 Rough-legged Hawks, tied for
the high, as were the 3 Barred Owls.
Low numbers were 2 Evening Grosbeaks, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 1
Canada Goose and 6 Snow Buntings.
Small numbers of Common Redpolls were found, most feeding on
weed seeds by roadsides. There were also small numbers of Goldfinches.
There were no Pine Grosbeaks, Crossbills, Purple Finches or Pine Siskins.
There were 3 Belted Kingfishers, the 34th year on the
count. The record high is 4. One Common Loon was on Deep Bay in Gull Lake,
the 21st year on the count. The count record is 9. Minden probably has
the highest incidence of waterfowl reports of any inland count in Ontario.
An interesting record was an adult Northern Goshawk
photographed by someone not on the count. It was spotted mantling a mallard
it had killed, one of a flock of 55 feeding in a driveway along Bethel
Church Road, well away from lakes or rivers.
Misses included Gray Jay for the second year in a row, only
the fifth time it hasn't been recorded, and Common Merganser, the first time
since 1986 none were spotted.
Dennis Barry
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