Hello all: A quick summary here, with a more complete summary to be posted on the Nature Guelph website over the holidays. The Guelph CBC took place on Sunday December 20. Despite COVID-19 greatly affecting our approach to the survey and a foggy morning we managed to equal the count record of 70 species. That was largely due to this winter's influx of boreal finches, but perhaps also affected by dividing the count circle into smaller areas than usual and having more, but smaller, groups working. We may have had a record number of records, with 9 species at their all time high count, including one new species for the count, an Eastern Phoebe. The other record counts were: Eastern Screech-Owl - 16 - perhaps due to more owling effort and mild conditions Red-bellied Woodpecker - 25 - ongoing increase Common Raven - 43 - ongoing increase Red-breasted Nuthatch - 81 - more birds than usual left the boreal, along with the finches Winter Wren - 9 - perhaps due to mild conditions - one bird was singing! Swamp Sparrow - 20 - presumably due to mild weather - many along the Speed River Pine Siskin - 562 - A large influx seemed to happen right around the day of the count Eastern Phoebe - 1 - New to the count. Likely side benefit of climate change. Red Crossbill - 7 - Part of the boreal finch invasion. Hoping they'll stick around to nest! We also had a low number of Canada Geese, which might have been due to the fog - but the steady increase had to stop sometime(?) and zero American Kestrels, part of an ongoing decline. The full list is below. Thanks to everyone for taking part, especially the group leaders. Happy Holidays to all. Mike Cadman SPECIES Number Canada Goose 3461 Mute Swan 4 Trumpeter Swan 2 American Black Duck 48 Mallard 1175 Common Goldeneye 9 Hooded Merganser 3 Common Merganser 32 Ruffed Grouse 8 Wild Turkey 61 Great Blue Heron 4 Bald Eagle 5 Northern Harrier 2 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 Cooper's Hawk 6 Red-tailed Hawk 55 Rough-legged Hawk 1 Merlin 4 Ring-billed Gull 108 Herring Gull 348 Great Black-backed Gull 3 Rock Pigeon 714 Mourning Dove 491 Eastern Screech-Owl 16 Great Horned Owl 5 Belted Kingfisher 10 Red-bellied Woodpeck 25 Downy Woodpecker 62 Hairy Woodpecker 32 Northern Flicker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 9 Northern Shrike 2 Blue Jay 271 American Crow 499 Common Raven 43 Horned Lark 1 Black-capped Chickadee 941 Red-breasted Nuthatch 81 White-breasted Nuthatch 84 Brown Creeper 8 Winter Wren 9 Golden-crowned Kinglet 23 American Robin 239 European Starling 1661 Bohemian Waxwing 4 Cedar Waxwing 125 American Tree Sparrow 239 Song Sparrow 13 Swamp Sparrow 20 White-throated Sparrow 9 Dark-eyed Junco 359 Snow Bunting 155 Northern Cardinal 167 Pine Grosbeak 4 Purple Finch 5 House Finch 7 Common Redpoll 522 Pine Siskin 562 American Goldfinch 374 House Sparrow 62 Additional species Cackling Goose 2 MallardxBlack Duck hybrid 3 Green-winged Teal 9 Peregrine Falcon 1 Iceland Gull 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Eastern Bluebird 7 Evening Grosbeak 8 Red-winged Blackbird 1 Red Crossbill 7 White-winged Crossbill 5 Total Species 70 Total Number of birds 13240