The 73rd Kingston CBC was held on Sunday, December 20. The Christmas circle is centred on the tip of Garden Island and covers the entire west end of Wolfe Island and all of Kingston from Collins Bay in the west to the tip of Howe Island in the east; it extends north above the 401 to include the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area and Kingston Mills. The weather on count day was miserable with temperatures near zero, strong winds and mixed precipitation all day. There was very little snow cover, the small inland bodies of water were mostly frozen and the main lake was open and rough. There were 53 participants in the field and a record number of 134 feeder watchers – the latter being a wonderful COVID-safe activity! A near record low of 78 species was tallied: the second worst result in over 30 years, second only to last year’s record low of 69. This was significantly below the 20 year average of 99 species. There were only 23,778 individual birds tallied, less than half of the 20 year average of 48,612. The feeder watchers contributed 4 species that weren’t seen in the field: Pine Siskin, Evening Grosbeak, Purple Finch and Carolina Wren. Count week species included: Long-eared Owl, Hermit Thrush and Marsh Wren. There were no new species recorded. Notable finds included: Tufted Titmice at 2 different feeder locations. Notable highs included: Mute Swan, American Crow, Common Raven, Northern Cardinal and Dark-eyed Junco. There were MANY notable lows and misses. Record or near record low numbers were found for most duck species. THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE PARTICIPANTS, IN PARTICULAR THE SECTION LEADERS, WHO MADE THE COUNT A SUCCESS! Kathy Webb & Bill Depew Kingston CBC Coordinators