The 46th Presqu'ile count was held Sunday 19th in grey but calm weather. Temperature was about -7C to -3C and most standing water had been frozen for about ten days. Only the Trent River and Lake Ontario held big open water. While the feeling was that numbers of individual birds were down, some big numbers in a few groups gave us a total of 21,402 which was 7,000 more than last year.
The summary is below: 83 species total (+ 3 count week) which is way over our average of 71 and the third highest total in the last 21 years. A few rarer ducks, some "one ofs" of late migrants and a couple of unusual winter nomads resulted in the high species total despite the frozen year. We had a new bird in House Wren (1). We had high counts for: Mute Swan (again) (504) Harlequin Duck (2), Red-bellied Woodpeckers (5), Pileated Woodpeckers (14) and Snow Bunting. (2601) We just missed a high count for Juncos (461) by 13. Birds we don't get too often that tied high counts where: Barrow's Goldeneye (1), 2nd time in 21 years Carolina Wren (2), 5th time in 21 years Hermit Thrush (1), 2nd time in 21 years Common Yellowthroat (1), 4th in 21 years Eastern Towhee (1), 4th in 21 years - seen in same place as last year, probably same bird. Other birds that we don't get very often included: Gadwall (8) - 6th time in 21 years Black Scoter (1) - 2nd in 21 years Fox Sparrow (1) - 3rd in 21 years Rusty Blackbirds (7) - 5th in 21 years Red Crossbill (7) - 1st since 1984 It was interesting to note that while we had a big numbers of Bohemian Waxwings (721), they were all to the west of the park in about 1/3 of the count circle, resulting in about 2/3 of our participants feeling left out. After a record high of 7 last year Ravens were back down to 1, Gulls in general where in low in numbers and diversity (just 3 species). Thanks to all the participants who came, out and for those who provided hot food for the tallying in the late afternoon. David David Bree Natural Heritage Education (NHE) Leader Presqu'ile Provincial Park 328 Presqu'ile Parkway Brighton, ON K0K 1H0 Tel: (613) 475-4324 ext. 225 Fax: (613) 475-2209 _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
