Christmas Bird Count

Caroline mentioned her Christmas bird count was coming up and Rob and I asked whether we could participate this year in the Uxbridge tally. Hurray! The answer was yes.

We met up with the field coordinator for our map and scouted our assigned territory the week beforehand. A list of commonly sighted species was shared, and we refreshed our memories with the Audubon Field Guide for the differences between purple finch and house finch; downy woodpecker and hairy; raven and crow. We picked up the binoculars from the  boat so we'd have a second pair. We printed the sheets so we could record the sightings. I was looking forward to this outing with anticipation, eager to try something new after months of isolation.

On the day, we set the alarm for the first time in months so we would arrive at the Goodwood Community Centre for 8 a.m. and then proceeded with the count, driving slowly along Concession 3 and Wagg Road. Pulling over to observe some of the feeders, which definitely attracted a good array. 

Bird counting is a skill and takes time to properly develop. We focused on trees and likely missed hawks overhead. I imagined as soon as we left a sight, an owl or some expurgated species would make an appearance that we would miss. Wings would flap that would make it challenging to i.d. markings. Birds wouldn't oblige us by sitting still so we could check out the shape of their beaks. And what about that flock overhead? The flight pattern of gently swooping on air... what were those songbirds?

We met up afterward at Anina's restaurant to compare tallies. In all, Rob and I contributed our count of about 80 of the individuals and eleven different species over the three hour window. Not bad for beginners! 

I thought I saw a Cedar Waxwing but the organizer said it was more likely Bohemian and so recorded as CW, which means not a confirmed sighting. Rob thought they were Snow Buntings. Eventually Rob and I agreed to disagree by saying it was possible we were looking at two different birds in nearby trees.

Northern shrike

We did get lucky right off the bat and saw two northern shrikes right at the start of our route. We played the shrike call several times through the 3 hours but weren't lucky enough to repeat the sighting.

Overall a very fun outing! Andy says he will send us a list of good birding spots we can check out for future adventures. 

This list is the most common species seen on the annual count (over 50% ).