The 8th official Brantford Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday , January the 5th , held on a day where weather conditions were in our favour , making it for the most part comfortable for all our observers. The temperature ranged from -2 , to plus 1 degrees , and at times felt like -7 with the wind chill. A brief hard snowfall came down for no longer than a half hour, but that was all for precipitation. 33 field observers and 5 feeder watchers tallied 66 species and 5 count week species in our count circle , with the center being the Brantford airport 79.5 hours were spent in the field, 444.5 km were driven , and 99.65 were walked As well , 9 1/2 hours from our feeder watchers. A luncheon was held by Shelia Smith , as per the norm , giving the hardy group a nice break , whilst meeting some new participants . Count week species observed were : Hermit Thrush , Ruby Crowned Kinglet , Common Grackle , Field Sparrow and Lesser Black Backed Gull. Canada Goose - 1406 Cackling Goose - 3 Mute Sawn - 1 trumpter/ tundra swan - 11 Mallard Duck - 98 Am. black duck - 8 Common Merganser - 59 Common Goldeneye-135 Bufflehead - 4 Hooded Merganser - 2 Belted Kingfisher - 7 Great Blue Heron - 6 Ring Billed Gull- 192 Herring Gull - 273 Gr. black backed gull - 20 Iceland Gull - 3 Great horned owl - 2 E. screech owl - 4 Northern shrike - 2 Eastern towhee - 3 N. mockingbird - 1 Turkey vulture - 12 Bald eagle - 22 Merlin -1 American kestrel -2 Red tailed hawk - 64 Coopers hawk - 10 Sharp shinned hawk -1 Wild turkey - 62 Pileated woodpecker - 4 Northern flicker - 16 Downy woodpecker - 81 Hairy woodpecker - 17 Red bellied woodpecker - 29 Common crow - 316 American robin - 11 Carolina Wren - 14 Bluejay - 158 Northern cardinal - 140 Mourning dove - 359 Rock dove - 853 Black capped chickadee - 256 Dark eyed junco - 360 American tree sparrow - 185 White breasted nuthatch -50 Red breasted nuthatch- 7 Brown creeper - 13 Golden crowned kinglet - 25 American goldfinch- 226 House Finch -72 House sparrow - 317 White throated sparrow - 42 White crowned sparrow - 30 Swamp sparrow - 6 Song sparrow - 47 Brown headed cowbird -22 Red winged blackbird -5 European starling - 2567 Winter wren - 2 Tufted Titmouse -5 Cedar waxwing -12 Horned lark - 12 Common Raven -4 Peregrine Falcon - 1 Chipping sparrow - 1 Eastern bluebird - 7 Compiler Kevin Murphy Sent from my iPhone