Hello Ontario Birders, Hope everyone is enjoying the winter listing season. I wanted to update you on the Ontario Winter List for 2024-2025. The current list total sits at 207. To give some perspective, the final 2023-2024 list was 226, 2022-2023 list was 218, and the 2021-2022 list was a high 229. The average number of species for a winter over the last 17 years is 208. This season's list is around average; we will have to see if we get another couple of species. Since my last update on Dec. 31, 2024, additions included Willow Ptarmigan, found by a group of birders in Cochrane, Common Eider, found by Griffin Lepage in Young's Point, and Dickcissel, in Norfolk. A Spotted Sandpiper was found dead around Kingston. I have not added Spotted Sandpiper to the list because it was not seen alive.
We are missing some uncommon winter birds seen in previous years. Uncommon birds missing from the list include Pomarine Jaeger (seen 8 out of the last 17 seasons), Western Grebe (6/17), and Spotted Sandpiper (6/17). The winter list can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/myyulvs . Check out the OFO website for winter bird trips and events http://www.ofo.ca/site/tripsupcoming. Winter trips and events include: - Zoom Meeting: Your Bird Data at Work -- Community Science and Brownfield Redevelopment- Feb. 5 - Niagara Pride Walk for Birds on the Niagara (Field) - Feb. 17 - Haldimand and Norfolk Counties (Field) - Feb. 22 - Amherst Island (Field) - Feb. 23 The OFO also has a discord group with a Winter bird channel. A link to the OFO discord group is here: https://discord.gg/npbCzXVhZ2. Winter Listers can also keep track of what's being seen in the Ontario Birds Discord Server which can be found here:https://discord.gg/EhvgAc2fwb. I try to update the spreadsheet every couple of days or whenever I hear of a new addition. Please let me know if you hear of a new addition or any other correction to the spreadsheet. Thank you to everyone who has notified me of omissions. Good birding, Todd Hagedorn -- 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.
