Greetings ONTbirders,

On January 2nd, twenty-nine participants & four feederwatchers tallied birds on the 17th annual Saugeen Shores Christmas Bird Count. The weather was unseasonably warm, starting out at 1°C and maxing out at 5°C in the afternoon. We also got lucky with the weather, as the whole count day was sun & cloud. The wind was S/SE all day. Likely due to this weather & the amount of open ground, feeder bird counts were very low. This has been the case across all of Bruce County CBCs, so low numbers were not too surprising.

59 species were recorded, which ties 2011 for the second highest species count, but is slightly lower than the high count of 64 recorded in 2015.

8628 individual birds were seen, this is above the average of 6449, but considerably below the high count of 12225.

3 new species were added to the all time count list, bringing the total up to 102. The new additions were; Eastern Bluebird, Chipping Sparrow & Eared Grebe (the best bird of the count by far).

2 count week species were recorded, Northern Flicker and Hooded Merganser.

Some other notable birds were; Cackling Goose (2nd record), Golden Eagle (7th record), Glaucous Gull (7th record), Iceland Gull (2nd record), Belted Kingfisher (4th record), Eastern Meadowlark (2nd record) and Red Crossbill (2nd record)

High counts were recorded for the following species; Greater Scaup (63), Common Goldeneye (241), Sharp-shinned Hawk (4), Iceland Gull (2), Great Black-backed Gull (27), Golden-crowned Kinglet (16), American Robin (66), Red Crossbill (5).

Some surprising low counts/misses were House Sparrow (16 birds recorded, average of 118.) And Ruffed Grouse (0! This is the first count that missed Ruffed Grouse).

Good birding

Kiah Jasper
Saugeen Shores Compiler

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