35th Fisherville Christmas Bird Count–Report

Photo of Eastern Bluebird by Len Grincevicius

Report by Sarah Sharp

This year marked Fisherville’s 35^th annual Christmas Bird Count, and although the weather was against us, the twenty dedicated counters made an amazing effort to once again document all of the birds in the area. The temperature ranged from -5ºC to 3ºC with wind gusts up to 40km/h from the Southwest. There was drizzle in the late morning turning to snow/freezing rain in the afternoon. A total of 45 collective hours were spent in the field counting birds, with a collective 430km travelled by car and 29km travelled by foot.

Thank you kindly to David Maida, Anne Marie Henry, Duane Brown, George Uimonen, Nicole Richardson, Andy Johnson, Jeff Skevington, Ruchard Skevington, Angela Skevington, Tom Thomas, Bill Smith, Amanda Anstice, Hugh McArthur, Julia Wever, Jacob Wever, Randy Wilson, Michael Kirchin, Audrey Heagy, Kim Fleming and Jay Buck for your contribution to valuable bird population data this year!

There were no new high counts this year, most likely due to low detectability due to the weather. However, some interesting species were found. The first Black Scoter since 2012 was found on Lake Erie. A Rusty Blackbird (a species at risk) was discovered in the count circle for the first time since 2017. A Gray Catbird was found on the count for only the 6^th time. A Common Yellowthroat, a warbler that is uncommon in the winter, was found for the 5^th time on the count.

There were new low counts for American Goldfinch (46), Black-capped Chickadee (93), European Starling (791), Great Blue Heron (0), House Finch (23), Northern Harrier (4), Red-tailed Hawk (42) and Rock Pigeon (153). Many of these lows could represent birds being difficult to detect due to the weather. The three most abundant species counted were Canada Goose (1675), Mallard (930) and House Sparrow (811).

A total of 13 owls were found, 9 Eastern Screech-owls, 3 Great Horned Owls and a singular Short-eared Owl. There used to be many more owls found on the Fisherville count, but habitat loss and other threats have caused their wintering populations in the area to decline.

Overall, on this year’s count, birders counted 8082 individual birds of 73 species. Well done everyone! As always, we welcome any new participants, whether you are an advanced birder or a beginner, we will find a spot for you! Please email fisherville.birdcount@gmail.com if you are interested!

Total Species List