Hi everyone,
The Blenheim CBC was held Sunday December 18. Weather was blustery and cold with flurries at times which made birding difficult although it could have been worse……
Despite the less than desirable conditions, 112 species were tallied by the 26 participants, which is a little above average for the last 20 years. There were no new species and 5 additional species seen for count week only. Instead of listing highlights, I’ll just give the whole list.
Kudos to my dad for doing most (not all) of the work too.
Jim
18 Snow Goose
2 Greater White-fronted Goose
6 Cackling Goose
5025 Canada Goose
171 Mute Swan -- Record high (79)
2 Trumpeter Swan — Second record
4859 Tundra Swan
2 Wood Duck
33 Northern Shoveler
762 Gadwall
266 American Wigeon
605 Mallard
255 American Black Duck
9 Northern Pintail
7 Green-winged Teal
1680 Canvasback
12012 Redhead -- Record high (9377)
11 Ring-necked Duck
391 Greater Scaup
520 Lesser Scaup
1300 Greater/Lesser Scaup
1 Surf Scoter
32 White-winged Scoter
1 Black Scoter
11 Long-tailed Duck
1308 Bufflehead -- Second highest
339 Common Goldeneye
273 Hooded Merganser -- Ties high 😂
40 Common Merganser
1160 Red-breasted Merganser
3606 Ruddy Duck -- Record high (627)
6000 duck sp. — Presumably mostly Redhead
14 Wild Turkey
1 Pied-billed Grebe
1 Horned Grebe
69 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
490 Mourning Dove
1 Virginia Rail
2501 American Coot
21 Sandhill Crane
35 Killdeer -- Second highest
1 Dunlin
1 Western Sandpiper -- Second record
1 Spotted Sandpiper -- Third record
31 Bonaparte's Gull
1289 Ring-billed Gull
566 Herring Gull
1 Iceland Gull -- Thayer’s
1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
34 Great Black-backed Gull
1 Red-throated Loon
1 Common Loon
5 Double-crested Cormorant
10 Great Blue Heron
1 Black-crowned Night-Heron
3 Golden Eagle -- Ties high
9 Northern Harrier
3 Sharp-shinned Hawk
11 Cooper's Hawk
30 Bald Eagle
32 Red-tailed Hawk
4 Rough-legged Hawk
3 Eastern Screech-Owl — low (windy)
8 Great Horned Owl
2 Belted Kingfisher
3 Red-headed Woodpecker
58 Red-bellied Woodpecker
112 Downy Woodpecker
18 Hairy Woodpecker
3 Pileated Woodpecker
10 Northern Flicker
7 American Kestrel
1 Merlin
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 Northern Shrike
110 Blue Jay
871 American Crow
212 Black-capped Chickadee
11 Tufted Titmouse
226 Horned Lark
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
20 Golden-crowned Kinglet
22 Red-breasted Nuthatch
49 White-breasted Nuthatch
19 Brown Creeper
3 Winter Wren
2 Marsh Wren
27 Carolina Wren
1099 European Starling
2 Eastern Bluebird
4 Hermit Thrush
2 American Robin — 30 year low
12 Cedar Waxwing
1432 House Sparrow
403 House Finch
294 American Goldfinch
73 Snow Bunting
3 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
495 American Tree Sparrow
2 Fox Sparrow
756 Dark-eyed Junco
21 White-crowned Sparrow
13 White-throated Sparrow
3 Savannah Sparrow
90 Song Sparrow
51 Swamp Sparrow
1 Eastern Towhee
569 Red-winged Blackbird
350 Brown-headed Cowbird
2 Rusty Blackbird
16 Common Grackle
1 Common Yellowthroat
260 Northern Cardinal
Count week species: Purple Sandpiper, Wilson’s Snipe, American Pipit, Lapland Longspur, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin
If you made it this far. No, I didn’t type all that out lol.
And to the participants that already had seen the list, after going over it what seems like 100 times, I’m still finding small errors haha.