Hello Everyone, The 34th Wallaceburg CBC took place yesterday, December 28th under one of the nicest weather conditions that I've ever experienced on a Christmas Count. There was virtually no wind all day, temperatures rose from 1 degree to 6 degrees and it was sunny most of the afternoon. Most water was back open, as we've had an incredible stretch of warm, sunny weather (it was 15 degrees here the 2 previous days). Here's a brief summary: Fourteen participants (YES, only 14!) and 2 feeder watchers found *83* species on the count day, which is above the average of 79 over the last 10 years, 6 short of our highest of 89 species in 2005. Two new species were added to our CBC this year: EASTERN PHOEBE (2 seen in separate locations on Walpole Island) and an immature COMMON GALLINULE found at the Sombra Sewage Lagoons. This brings our cumulative total for the 34 years to 144 species. Other highlights included 9 SNOWY OWLS, 3 SHORT-EARED OWLS, 1 YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD and 2 COMMON YELLOWTHROATS. We found high counts for the following 3 species this year: BELTED KINGFISHER 5 ( previous high of 4) RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER 62 (previous high of 50) MARSH WREN 6 (previous high of 3) and we tied one other: CHIPPING SPARROW (2) So far, we have tallied 4 species that were seen during Count Week only (3 days prior and 3 days after but not seen on count day): AMERICAN WIGEON, RING-NECKED DUCK, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET AND SNOW BUNTING. Perhaps there will be more waterfowl or other species seen in the coming 3 days. We had very few notable misses this year, thanks to the hard work of those searching. Those that stood out were: RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH (first miss in 8 years but they're virtually absent this year anywhere in the south) GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET (first time missed since 1993) Finally, a few thank you's are in order. Thanks to Wendy and Becky Cornelis for once again providing a fantastic hot meal after our long count day. Also, a big thanks to Georgette Cornelis for again providing her house for the meal and compilation and also for being such a welcoming host. *Steve Charbonneau* *Wallaceburg CBC Compiler*