A message from Mike Burrell, Coordinator of the Winter Birding Challenge Congratulations to all of the winners of the challenge. Our final winners are Jean and Robert Hilscher and Rick Olaveson who won OFO gear and the grand prize winner, Kathy Raepple who has won a pair of Vortex Diamondback binoculars courtesy of Vortex Canada. Congratulations! Here is the final summary: The winter birding challenge came to a close on February 28th. We finished with 157 registrants. Since December 1, participants submitted 5,983 checklists across the province from 46 of the 50 census divisions. An impressive 186 species were reported including 35 species of waterfowl, seven shorebirds, ten gulls, ten hawks, eight owls, seven woodpeckers, six thrushes, ten finches, 15 sparrows, nine blackbirds, and six warblers. Many unusual species were reported including Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Rufous Hummingbird, Least Sandpiper, Red Phalarope, Razorbill, Glaucous-winged Gull, White-eyed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend’s Solitaire, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Nelson’s Sparrow, Western Meadowlark, and Black-throated Gray Warbler. For total species, Chatham-Kent led the way with 133, followed by Lambton (118), Toronto (114), Niagara (105), and Hamilton (103) all cracking one hundred species. For checklists, Toronto was tops with 953 checklists, followed by Peterborough (416), Hamilton (321), Wellington (315), and Middlesex (307). People can explore the results by species and county in a Google Sheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-3LvIvg9GFDUJx7NVLo1Y4k97CQ0Kfxm/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=118187139860984701170&rtpof=true&sd=true Thanks to everyone who participated and helped make birding through the winter lots of fun. Bring on spring birding! Mike