The 8th annual Brantford Christmas bird count was held on Sunday January the 2nd , 2022
The count circle centres upon the Brantford Airport , and extends south to Oakland , west to Burford , and surrounding agricultural land, north into Paris , and eastern Brantford . Weather for the day was a high of -3 , a low of -8 , light winds at 10km/hr NW , intermittent snow throughout the day , sunny periods in the afternoon , with 3 to 5 cm of snow covering the ground All water bodies remained ice free
35 field observers (22 parties ) and 3 feeder counters observed 73 species on the day , and 5 count week species The Brantford count was one species shy of tying last years highest count of 74 species.
12, 464 individual birds were observed on count day
New species to the count are Green Winged Teal , American Coot , Wilsons Snipe , Long Eared Owl , and Purple Finch
Additional new count week species are as follows Northern Pintail , Gadwall , and Ring Necked Duck
One big miss this year , was Great Horned Owl Bald Eagles counted by all parties was 36 in total . However , this total surely is the result of many individuals being double counted for this wideranging and very conspicuous species . Accordingly , in consultation with others , the number had been reduced to 22 Bald Eagles , allthough its impossible to know the true number of Bald Eagles on count day . That being said , the Grand River does have a high concentration of Bald Eagles in the winter months because of the presence of the Brantford landfill , and the high numbers of gulls and waterfowl that provide prey for the Eagles
One remarkeable almost miss , was the Wild Turkey , with just one specimen observed This species is often abundant and recorded by many parties
Full species list and amounts per species are as follows : ( pardon the non taxonomical order )
Bald Eagle 22
Turkey Vulture 11
NorthernHarrier 3
Rough Legged Hawk 4
Red Tailed Hawk 78
Coopers Hawk 9
Sharp Shinned Hawk 3
Merlin 2
American Kestrel 6
Peregrine Falcon 2
Blue Heron 5
Wild Turkey 1
Trumpeter Swan 36
Belted Kingfisher 10
Canada Goose 2,690
Mallard Duck 644
Am Black Duck 56
Common Goldeneye 236
Common Merganser 176
Hooded Merganser 16
American Coot 1
Green Winged Teal 1
Bufflehead 6
Wilsons Snipe 1
Eastern Screech Owl 5
Mourning Dove 994
Rock Pigeon 589
Herring Gull 704
Ring Billed Gull 43
Iceland Gull 2
Glaucous Gull 6
Great Blacked Back Gull 9
Horned Lark 130
Snow Bunting 59
Dark Eyed Junco 973
Red Bellied Woodp 56
Downy Woodp 119
Hairy Woodp 27
Northern Flicker 10
Pileated Woodp 5
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker 1
Red Breasted Nuthatch 23
White Br Nuthatch 60
Black C Chickadee 266
Carolina Wren 17
Bluejay 198
Northern Cardinal 257
Brown Creeper 20
Golden Cr Kinglet 22
Eastern Bluebird 55
American Robin 39
Hermit Thrush 2
European Starling 1738
American Crow 359
Common Raven 8
House Sparrow 301
House Finch 113
American Goldfinch 405
Purple Finch 4
Am Tree Sparrow 627
White Cr Sparrow 16
White Th Sparrow 41
Fox Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 47
Northern Shrike 3
Tufted Titmouse 7
Swamp Sparrow 4
Red Winged Blackbird 1
Brown Hd Cowbird 5
Cedar Waxwing 47
Common Redpoll 14
Mute Swan 2
Long Eared Owl 2
Compiler Kevin Murphy