The 77th Kingston CBC was held on Sunday, December 15. The count circle 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 Hwy 401 to include the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area and Kingston Mills.
The weather on count day started out cold (-8 degrees C) and clear with very little wind. Over the course of the day, it became overcast and windy with gusts of about 50+ km/hr from the south. There was no precipitation and only patchy snow on the ground. Lake Ontario was open and choppy but shallow bays and smaller bodies of water were mostly frozen. We had 147 participants (65 in the field and 82 feeder/yard watchers) who together did approximately 300 hours of birding. A total of 86 species was tallied on count day with 3 additional count week species. This is below the 20-year average of 94 species but on par with results over the past 8 years. The feeders tallied 33 species but didn’t add any additional species to the field list this year. The only new count day species were 2 Fish Crows that have made downtown Kingston their residence for the last couple of years; last year Fish Crows were included for the first time as a count week species. There were 40,364 individual birds tallied, which is 90% of the previous 20-year average. Most species were present in low to average numbers with the exception of birds that come to feeders which remained high, possibly due to the continued high number of feeder/yard watchers. Other notes: Last year Kingston reported more Mute Swans than anywhere in North America; however, the number this year has receded back to levels seen in the preceding 5 years. Waterfowl counts were low to average other than Ring-necked Ducks and Hooded Mergansers which presented in good numbers. No loons or grebes were seen. Owl numbers remained low except for a notable high number of Barred Owls. There were continuing high counts of Bald Eagles. American Crow numbers remained high since they are roosting in the Inner Harbour area again this year. There were low numbers of Snow Buntings and Horned Larks. There were no winter finches except for the usual scattering of Purple Finches. House Sparrow numbers continue to decline and reached a new record low. Finally, Tufted Titmice have moved northward into the area and we had a record high number of 9 of these cute little birds! More details are provided below. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS YEAR’S COUNT A SUCCESS! Kathy Webb Kingston CBC Compiler ********************** SPECIFIC DETAILS TOTAL SPECIES: 86 + 3 count week additions (20 year average 94) TOTAL INDIVIDUALS: 40,364 (20 year average 44,729) PARTICIPANTS: 65 in the field + 82 feeder watchers = 147 participants NEW SPECIES: Fish Crow (2) COUNT WEEK SPECIES: Peregrine Falcon, Black Scoter, Northern Mockingbird NOTABLE FINDS: Snow Goose (1), Cackling Goose (3), Trumpeter Swan (3), Northern Shoveler (4), Northern Pintail (14), Red-shouldered Hawk (1), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (2), Tufted Titmouse (9), Carolina Wren (4), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1), Hermit Thrush (3), Fox Sparrow (1), Swamp Sparrow (2), Red-winged Blackbird (18) RECORD/EQUAL HIGH (last 20 years): Hooded Merganser 255 (average 92, previous high 210) Bald Eagle 33 (avg 19, tied with previous high 33) Red-bellied Woodpecker 32 (avg 9.6, previous high 24) Merlin 6 (avg 2.4, previous high 5) Tufted Titmouse 9 (avg 0.6, previous high 3) NOTABLE RECORDS ABOVE AVERAGE (last 20 years): Mute Swan 566 (avg 204) Ring-necked Duck 188 (avg 101) Double-crested Cormorant 7 (avg 2.3) Cooper’s Hawk 7 (avg 3.6) Ring-billed Gull 805 (avg 375) Barred Owl 8 (avg 2.8) American Crow 2282 (avg 500) Common Raven 36 (avg 21) Carolina Wren 4 (avg 1.9) Dark-eyed Junco 482 (avg 273) White-throated Sparrow 43 (avg 16) Northern Cardinal 163 (avg 92) Red-winged Blackbird 18 (avg 8) Purple Finch 17 (avg 6) RECORD/EQUAL LOW (last 20 years): House Sparrow 55 (avg 367, previous low 86) NOTABLE RECORDS BELOW AVERAGE (last 20 years): Mallard 1722 (avg 5429) Redhead 607 (avg 1420) Lesser Scaup 184 (avg 410) Long-tailed Duck 127 (avg 852) Common Goldeneye 623 (avg 1037) Common Merganser 635 (avg 1429) Red-breasted Merganser 1154 (avg 1802) American Coot 42 (avg 78) Great Black-backed Gull 6 (avg 23) Great Horned Owl 2 (avg 5) Horned Lark 6 (avg 77) Snow Bunting 67 (avg 565) American Tree Sparrow 75 (avg 171) NOTABLE MISSES (typically seen in >50% of counts): Green-winged Teal, White-winged Scoter, Common Loon, Lapland Longspur, Common Grackle A full checklist will eventually be available on the CBC website (count code ONKG): http://netapp.audubon.org/CBCObservation/CurrentYear/ResultsByCount.aspx -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. 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