The 16th annual Holiday Beach CBC took place on Tuesday, December 28th. The count includes Holiday Beach Conservation Area, Big Creek, the lower Detroit River north to LaSalle (Lower Detroit IBA), Boblo Island, and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, Boblo Island was inaccessible this year but the rest of the count circle got good coverage. 37 participants volunteered for the Count, tallying 78 species and 21,533 individual birds. Golden Eagle was the only additional species reported for Count Week. The species count of 78 is two below the record high of 80 species.
Skies were cloudy all day and heavy wet snow started in the mid-afternoon into the evening. The temperature ranged from a low of 0C and a high of 2C w/ light southeast winds making for comfortable birding throughout the day. There was no ice cover on any bodies of water during the count. A few highlights from this year's count included: Snow Goose - 4 Cackling Goose - 1 Northern Pintail - 7 (good number for the count) Green-winged Teal - 1 (new species for the count) Canvasback - 11,326 (record high count; mostly consisting of birds streaming from the Lower Detroit River IBA towards Lake Erie) Ruddy Duck - 1 Ring-necked Pheasant - 1 (becoming increasingly difficult to find on CBC's in Essex County) Great Blue Heron - 30 (good number for the count) Hairy Woodpecker - 19 (record high count) Blue Jay - 227 (record high count) Tufted Titmouse - 16 (record high count) Marsh Wren - 2 (record high count) Many thanks to all the Area Leaders and volunteers for their efforts! Jeremy Hatt & Kory Renaud -- 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 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.
