The 34th Petroglyphs Christmas Bird Count was held on Tuesday, December 29th - a day with very pleasant weather. It was calm in the morning (excellent listening conditions) but the wind began to pick up as the day progressed. Temperatures were quite mild at about -4 degrees C in the a.m. warming to about -2 degrees C, with a mixture of overcast skies with sunny periods.
Lakes and ponds were frozen so there were no waterbirds detected this year. Participants: 34 (above average) Total species: 26 (quite a bit lower than the 10-year average of 32.4) Total individuals: 1927 (10-year average is 2248) Overall it was very quiet day and we had to work hard to detect the birds (lots of pishing, squeaking and owls calls to draw the birds in). Even when the birds appeared, they were often quite silent. There were very few notable species and high count as follows: ROCK PIGEON: 120 (new count high) WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH: 205 (well above the 10-year average of 96.5 and very close to the all-time high count of 233 in 2014) BOHEMIAN WAXWING: 1 Low Counts: MOURNING DOVE: 1 (a near miss; this species has been recorded every year since 1995 with a 10-year average of 8.8 and count high of 93) GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET: 8 (10-year average is 41 and count high is 120) EUROPEAN STARLING: 2 (a near miss; this species has been recorded every year since 1989 with a 10-year average of 26.5 and count high of 114) Winter Finches: EVENING GROSBEAK: 75 PINE GROSBEAK: 23 COMMON REDPOLL: 71 PINE SISKIN: 2 AMERICAN GOLDFINCH: 17 (very low - 10-year average is 166.5 and count high is 714) Misses: WILD TURKEY: count period only. Has been recorded nearly yearly since 2002 with a 10-year average of 56. BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER: once a nearly annual species on this count, it has only been recorded 3 times over the past 10 years. CANADA JAY: another once annual species but only recorded 4 times over the past 10 years. SNOW BUNTING: only the 8th time this species has been missed. 10-year average is 9.8 The count circle (including the 6 areas) can be viewed at the following link: https://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=217208700112631695001.0004d125bfd0d20adc5de&msa=0&ll=44.660839,-77.950058&spn=0.2525,0.676346<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmaps.google.ca%2Fmaps%2Fms%3Fmsid%3D217208700112631695001.0004d125bfd0d20adc5de%26msa%3D0%26ll%3D44.660839%2C-77.950058%26spn%3D0.2525%2C0.676346&data=04%7C01%7Ccolin.jones%40ontario.ca%7C63343925449145c3040d08d8b035d484%7Ccddc1229ac2a4b97b78a0e5cacb5865c%7C0%7C0%7C637453092536231739%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=aWMwU83bPCMjXKhPmVHa9cn6spnBmW0BKdkGnO3NodI%3D&reserved=0> Thanks to all participants! Colin Jones, Compiler Peterborough, ON -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. Birdnews is reserved for announcements, location summaries, first of year reports, etc. To post a message on Birdnews, send an email to: [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at [email protected]. Please review posting rules and guidelines at http://ofo.ca/site/content/listserv-guidelines To edit your membership settings visit the Birdnews setup page at: http://ontbirds.ca/mailman/listinfo/birdnews_ontbirds.ca. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all Ontario birders should be taking extra precautions and following local, provincial, and federal regulations regarding physical distancing and non-essential travel. To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
