These are the preliminary results from the Hamilton Naturalist's Club's annual
Christmas Bird Count held on December 26, 2005.
Many thanks to the 81 persons who took part either in the field or counted at
their feeders.
The day started off mild with temperatures hovering around the 0 - 1 degree
mark, with very little wind. Conditions under foot were icy in places. As the
morning wore on the winds seem to pick up and there were traces of snow
flurries. The afternoon proved to be a little brighter with the sun struggling
but failing to break through.
The count was again a success with a total of 97,232 birds counted. This is
the third best total count after the 106,444 birds counted in 1981 but this
count included 73,000 Starlings. The second best count 99,111 in 2002 had
19,000 Starlings and 6,000 American Crows.
New records were set for:
Mallard - 10,197, previous record 7,956.
Surf Scoter - 227, previous record 127
Long-tailed Duck - 24,304 previous record 17,369
Ruddy Duck - 850, previous record 391
Wild Turkey - 51, previous record 19
Rock Pigeon - 5,139, previous record 2,590
Red Bellied Woodpecker - 27, previous record 15
Pileated Woodpecker - 14, previous record 10
Black Capped Chickadee - 1,991, previous record 1,711
White Breasted Nuthatch - 284, previous record 207
American Robin - 1,194, previous record 903
White Throated Sparrow - 205, previous record 152
Northern Cardinal - 579, previous record 573
American Gold Finch - 954, previous record 675
Equal Best Count:
Bald Eagle - 5
Cooper's Hawk - 16
Merlin - 3
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Carolina Wren - 27
Fox Sparrow - 2
Out of a total of 101 species reported, 68 species numbers were average or
above while 33 species were below or well below average.
This year there were no Shrikes seen, Ring Necked Pheasant or Tufted Titmouse,
and northern species were hard to find..
Gulls were down in numbers with no Bonaparte Gulls spotted.
We had one new bird for the count list and that was a lone Turkey Vulture.
There were no count week species that could be added to the final tally.
I would like to thank Mike Street and Rob Dobos for their help on this year's
count.
Regards
Tom Thomas - Compiler
January 5, 2006
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fri Jan 6 20:47:02 2006
Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Delivered-To: ontbirds@hwcn.org
Received: from tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts16.bellnexxia.net
[209.226.175.4]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id
F2CAB638E1
for <ontbirds@hwcn.org>; Fri, 6 Jan 2006 20:47:01 -0500 (EST)
Received: from LewingtonHome ([69.157.21.147])
by tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.netSMTP
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
for <ontbirds@hwcn.org>; Fri, 6 Jan 2006 20:47:02 -0500
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "Dennis Lewington" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Ontbirds" <ontbirds@hwcn.org>
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2006 20:47:00 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1
Subject: [Ontbirds]Long Point/Lake Erie Shore Birding
X-BeenThere: ontbirds@hwcn.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 01:47:02 -0000
Long Point - Saw 28 Sandhill Cranes in the field (just west of house #2439) on
the north side of Lakeshore Rd. west of 1/4 Line Rd.
Good numbers of Tundra Swans in the open waters of the Bay, and observed an
adult Bald Eagle feeding on an ice floe. Birds best viewed from boat-houses on
Old Cut Blvd.
A Pileated Woodpecker flew across in front of our van at Turkey Point
Provincial Park.
Ending the day, the Short-Eared Owls showed up at 5:20 P.M. at the Owl Preserve
on the 6th Concession between Selkirk Rd. and Fisherville Rd
Dennis & Gwen Lewington
Stoney Creek, Ontario
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Jan 7 08:45:10 2006
Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Delivered-To: ontbirds@hwcn.org
Received: from tomts5-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts5.bellnexxia.net
[209.226.175.25]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id
BA16963BD8
for <ontbirds@hwcn.org>; Sat, 7 Jan 2006 08:45:10 -0500 (EST)
Received: from trentu.ca ([216.209.98.68]) by tomts5-srv.bellnexxia.net
(InterMail vM.5.01.06.13 201-253-122-130-113-20050324) with ESMTP
id <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
Sat, 7 Jan 2006 08:45:10 -0500
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 08:45:09 -0500
From: Fred Helleiner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: ontbirds@hwcn.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 0544-0, 10/31/2005), Outbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
Subject: [Ontbirds]Presqu'ile Park Closure.
X-BeenThere: ontbirds@hwcn.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 13:45:11 -0000
It has come to my attention that Presqu'ile Provincial Park will be
closed from 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 8 to 12:00 noon on Friday,
January 13, 2006. Birders wishing to scan the (now frozen) Presqu'ile
Bay from 186 Bayshore Road may be allowed in as my guests, depending on
the co-operation of the persons staffing the Park gate.
--
--
Fred Helleiner
186 Bayshore Road,
R.R. #4,
Brighton, Ontario, Canada, K0K 1H0
VOICE: (613) 475 5309
If visiting, access via Presqu'ile Provincial Park.
