The 42nd Kleinburg Christmas Count was held on Sunday, December 18th. The Circle includes parts of Vaughn, Brampton, Caledon and King. The temperature stayed around freezing for the day with a bit of some and a cool breeze. Most smaller ponds were frozen but some larger lakes were open, and in some cases attracting a lot of water birds. Twenty-one field observers and four feeder watchers managed to count 13008 individual birds. This is slightly above the average but the general feeling was that it was a tough day to find birds.
We set a new species record of 64 with the previous record being 61. New species for the count included Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler and Common Yellowthroat. This brings the total number of species observed in all counts up to 120. There was one Count Week bird - Winter Wren. Other good birds included Cackling Goose (2nd record), Snow Goose (3rd record) and Sandhill Crane (3rd record). We also had an exceptionally high number of White-throated Sparrows with 128 observed (previous high was 43) and included Cooper's Hawk (8) and Northern Cardinal (144). A number of regular species were missed including Northern Harrier (38 previous counts), Rough-legged Hawk (40 previous counts), Belted Kingfisher (36 previous counts), Horned Lark (26 previous counts), Golden-crowned Kinglet (38 previous counts) and Purple Finch (28 previous counts). Low numbers were recorded for Cedar Waxwing (2), Common Redpoll (2) and Pine Siskin (4). Many thanks to all of the participants. Bob Noble Compiler -- 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.
