The 71st Kingston CBC was held on Sunday, December 16, 2018. The Christmas circle is centred on the tip of Garden Island and covers the entire west end of Wolfe Island and all of Kingston from Collins Bay in the west to the tip of Howe Island in the east. It extends north above the 401 to include the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area and Kingston Mills. Count day was cloudy with light winds (NE 2 to 18 km/hr), temperatures near zero (-2°C to +2°C), no precipitation and no snow cover. Although the shallow bays and small inland bodies of water were mostly frozen, the main lake was open. A total of 57 participants spent their day in the field and a record number of 75 feeder watchers spent over 160 hours of feeder/yard watching! Both field and feeder counters consistently reported a “quiet” year and tallied 86 species by day’s end. This was significantly below the 20 year average of 102 species and only just beats the lowest Kingston counts of 84 and 82 in 2015 and 2017, respectively. The feeder watchers contributed 4 species to the total that weren’t seen in the field: Carolina Wren, Common Grackle, Purple Finch and Evening Grosbeak. The large increase in the number of feeder watchers also contributed to a notable increase in counts for birds that commonly attend feeders. A total of 35,819 individual birds was recorded, up from last year’s 20 year low of 16,910 but still well below the 20 year average of 49,920.
DETAILS: Total species: 86 + 2 count week additions (Boreal Owl, Long-eared Owl) Total individuals: 35,819 (20 year average 49,920) Participants: 57 in the field, 75 feeder watchers NEW SPECIES: Boreal Owl (count week) NOTABLE FINDS: Greater White-fronted Goose – 2nd record in the last 20 years, first since 1999 Hoary Redpoll – 2nd record in the last 20 years White-winged Crossbill – 4th record in the last 20 years Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 5th record in the last 20 years Tufted Titmouse – 6th record in the last 20 years Evening Grosbeak – 7th record in the last 20 years Long-eared Owl (count week) – 9th record in the last 20 years NOTABLE MISSES: Snow Goose (7th miss in 20 years, av. 14) Northern Pintail (1st miss in 20 years, av. 19) Green-winged Teal (3rd miss in 20 years, av. 11) White-winged Scoter (1st miss in 20 years, av. 14) Black Scoter (3rd miss in 20 years, av. 2.4) Ring-necked Pheasant (4th miss in 20 years – all in the last 4 years, av. 2) Horned Grebe (4th miss in 20 years, av. 2) Double-crested Cormorant (6th miss in 20 years, av. 2) Sharp-shinned Hawk (1st miss in 20 years, av. 3) Bonaparte’s Gull (4th miss in 20 years – all in the last years, av. 48) Horned Lark (2nd miss in 20 years, av. 90) Lapland Longspur (3rd miss in 20 years, av. 16) Red-winged Blackbird (2nd miss in 20 years, av. 9) Brown-headed Cowbird (4th miss in 20 years, av. 7) RECORD/EQUAL HIGH (last 20 years): Mute Swan 232 (previous high 199, av. 42) Barred Owl 10 (high 4, av. 1.4) Common Raven 27 (high 16, av. 6) Red-bellied Woodpecker 15 – field 9, feeder 6 (high 13, av. 5) Downy Woodpecker 125 – field 84, feeder 41 (high 110, av. 67) Hairy Woodpecker 73 – field 54, feeder 19 (high 72, av. 32) Black-capped Chickadee 1332 – field 1063, feeder 269 (high 1122, av. 1122) Red-breasted Nuthatch 33 – field 23, feeder 10 (high 30, av. 10) White-breasted Nuthatch 302 – field 223, feeder 79 (high 172, av. 97) Northern Cardinal 125 – field 42, feeder 83 (high 87, av. 56) Pine Siskin 78 – field 39, feeder 39 (high 31, av. 6) RECORD/EQUAL LOW (last 20 years): Common Loon 1 (av. 5) American Coot 1 (av. 87) Northern Shrike 1 (av. 5) Golden-crowned Kinglet 8 (av. 31) Swamp Sparrow 2 (av. 8) NOTABLE RECORDS ABOVE AVERAGE (20 years): Long-tailed Duck 2478 (2nd highest count, av. 611) Blue Jay 310 – field 236, feeder 74 (4th highest count, av. 211) Dark-eyed Junco 313 – field 137, feeder 176 (2nd highest count, av. 153) American Goldfinch 296 – field 179, feeder 117 (2nd highest count, av. 150) Pine Grosbeak 16 (3rd highest count, av. 3) NOTABLE RECORDS BELOW AVERAGE (20 years): Gadwall 97 (2nd lowest count in 20 years, av. 368) Mallard 1784 (2nd lowest count in 20 years, av. 8380) American Wigeon 12 (av. 97) Greater Scaup 721 (4th lowest count in 20 years, av. 2586) Lesser Scaup 7 (3rd lowest count in 20 years, av. 390) Bufflehead 116 (4th lowest count in 20 years, av. 341) Common Merganser 399 (av. 1516) Ring-billed Gull 194 (av. 497) Herring Gull 186 (av. 298) Greater Black-backed Gull 8 (2nd lowest count in 20 years, av. 55) Rock Pigeon (feral) 655 (4th lowest count in 20 years, av. 1206) American Kestrel 4 (av. 11) Snow Bunting 100 (3rd lowest count in 20 years, av. 689) American Tree Sparrow 82 (3rd lowest count in 20 years, av. 217) House Finch 170 (av. 212). Lower than average but highest count in last 10 yrs. House Sparrow 268 (av. 594). Has continued low in the last 10 years. A full checklist will be eventually be available on the CBC website (count code = ONKG): http://netapp.audubon.org/CBCObservation/CurrentYear/ResultsByCount.aspx. THANK YOU to all of the section leaders, participants, landowners and others who made the count successful! Kathy Webb & Bill Depew (Kingston CBC Coordinators) _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
