The 39th Petroglyphs Christmas Bird Count was held on Saturday, Jan 4, 2025. It was an overcast day with slightly windy conditions in the morning with the wind picking up significantly by noon. Temperatures ranged between -12 in the early morning to -4 by the afternoon.
Lakes, such as Stoney and Jacks, had largely frozen over earlier but had some open water on count day resulting in one species of waterfowl. Participants: 37 Total species: 33 (equalling the 10-year average of 33 but below the record of 40). Total individuals: 2173 (10-year average is 2434). Overall it was fairly quiet day as there was little natural food and we had to work hard to detect the birds (lots of pishing, squeaking and owls calls to draw the birds in). Typical overwintering species were at about the 10-year average numbers. This included species such as Downy, Hairy and Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Common Raven, Black-capped Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, White-breasted Nuthatch and Brown Creeper. There were very few notable species and numbers as follows: COMMON MERGANSER: 2 (8th time on the count - on Jacks lake) GOLDEN EAGLE: 1 NORTHERN HARRIER: 1 (3rd time on the count - flyover in Apsley) NORTHERN CARDINAL: 3 (all coming to feeders at the southern edge of the count circle) Low Counts: RUFFED GROUSE: 7 (much lower than the 10-year average of 21) BARRED OWL: 2 (much lower than the 10-year average of 6) RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH: 56 (much lower than the 10-year average of 127 Winter Finches were few and far between this year... RED CROSSBILL: 40 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL: 2 AMERICAN GOLDFINCH: 82 Misses: BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER: once an annually detected species this species has only been recorded on 4 counts since 2009 CANADA JAY: similar to the above species, this was once an annual species but has only been recorded 4 times since 2009. Count Week only birds included: WINTER WREN 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 Thanks to all participants! Colin Jones Count 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: birdnews@ontbirds.ca. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at birdn...@ofo.ca. Please review posting rules and guidelines at http://ofo.ca/site/content/listserv-guidelines To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
