Saturday December 29, 2018 birders in the field and registered feeder
watchers in the Georgina, East Gwillimbury and northwest Uxbridge areas
participated in the 32^nd annual Sutton C.B.C.
The day started off fully overcast for owling with a low temperature of
almost -7 degrees Celsius. As the day went on the temperature rose to -3
degrees by mid-afternoon. A light persistent wind (19 km/hour) from the
northwest by afternoon occurred throughout the day, and no snow. The
cold early in the morning during the owling and relatively high winds,
resulted in less than optimum owling conditions. Lake Simcoe was almost
completely open, except for much of Cook’s Bay.**
A total of 53 species were documented on the day (one of the higher
species counts in recent years, unexpected as fewer birds were seen at
feeders, but with a fully open Lake Simcoe). Highlights for the count
day were a count high of three Owl species seen or heard Great Horned
(3), Eastern Screech (3) and Snowy (21) owls seen. Sixteen Bald eagles
(16) were recorded, the highest count day record, with all water still
open. Lots of waterfowl and gulls were seen on count day, with
unexpected Red-breasted merganser (1), and Black ducks (2) being
highlights for field birders.
Some of the southern migrating birds still lingering in our count area
included White-crowned sparrow (1), White-throated sparrow (2), Eastern
bluebird (1) and Carolina wren (1). In the previous few years, the much
talked about prediction of northern finches’ irruption from the boreal,
across southern Canada did not appear in the Sutton Count area. However,
in 2018 the Sutton Count highlight was Pine grosbeaks (32) in the count
area on the day! Evening grosbeaks were seen on a few occasions in the
count area in mid-November and December (first time in many years) but
did not make an appearance on count day. Other finches seen were House
finch (4), Common redpoll (145) and American goldfinch (176) but no
Purple finch or Pine siskin were documented. Interestingly, Horned lark
(1) and Snow bunting (263) were welcome winter species additions on
count day. Thanks to all field birders and feeder watchers who
participated in the count.
The Sutton Count is supported by the Zephyr Society of Lake Simcoe
Research Foundation (_www.zephyrsociety.ca
<http://www.zephyrsociety.ca>_) and the South Lake Simcoe Naturalists
(_www.slsnc.ca <http://www.slsnc.ca>_).
Paul Harpley
_______________________________________________
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