39th Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count Report

Photo: Common Raven, photo by Sue Drotos

Article by Adam Timpf, Woodhouse CBC Count Organizer

These are the results of the 39th Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count (CBC) held on Sunday December 14th, 2025. The Woodhouse CBC is centred 7 km east of Simcoe, at the crossroads of Highway 3 and Cockshutt Road at Renton, and roughly covers from Port Ryerse and Port Dover to Waterford and from west of Simcoe to east of Jarvis. This year there were 34 field birders covering the count area plus 12 feeder watchers.

Conditions were bitterly cold to start the day with temperatures of -15, light west winds (0-15 km/h), plenty of snow cover, and barely any open water away from Lake Erie or moving streams. It “warmed up” to about -7 by the afternoon, but the sun felt nice when it was poking out from the clouds. The cold temperatures leading up to the count and subsequent freeze up of inland bodies of water meant waterfowl was tough to come by and were detected in low numbers. Although Lake Erie was open, it was largely devoid of ducks, gulls, and other waterbirds for some reason.

We tallied 89 species on the day, 2 more than the average of the last 10 years, and above the 39-year average of 85. There were 5 “count week” species that were found within 3 days of the count, but missed on the day. The count resulted in 1 new species being added to our count list – a Lincoln’s Sparrow was found hanging out with a group of Swamp Sparrows. Most winters there are only 1 or 2 that are found in the province in December so this year it was our turn to host this handsome sparrow. This brings our all-time species list to 157.

We also set 4 new count highs. 15 Common Raven surpasses the 14 recorded in 2021, and this will get broken again as this species continues to recolonize Norfolk County and southern Ontario more broadly. 11 Hermit Thrush surpasses the 7 found last year, 94 White-throated Sparrow beats the 66 recorded in 2023, and 14(!) Yellow-bellied Sapsucker obliterates the previous record of 5 from last year.

In fact, last year I didn’t realize that we set the new high count for Yellow-bellied Sapsucker for any CBC in Canada at 5, and now we have just upped the Canadian record to 14! For some historical context on the Woodhouse Count, from 1987 to 2023, we only recorded Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 11 times on the count day. On most counts it was absent entirely, but occasionally 1 or 2 would be found. For whatever reason, there were a lot around this winter so it will be interesting to watch results from other CBCs and see if any other counts put up big numbers for this species.

Total Individuals: 15,346 (top 3 species were Canada Goose, Slate-coloured Junco, and European Starling)

Average over all 39 years = 24,448

Average for the last 10 years = 18,031

Total Species: 89 + 5 count week.

Count week species were: Cackling Goose, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Iceland Gull, American Pipit

New for Count

1 Lincoln’s Sparrow

New Count Highs or ties: 

• 14 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (5 in 2024)
• 15 Common Raven (14 in 2021)
• 11 Hermit Thrush (7 in 2024)
• 94 White-throated Sparrow (66 in 2023)
• 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet (3 in 2024)
• 2 Peregrine Falcon (2 multiple times)

Other Notable Finds:

• 1 Northern Pintail
• 1 Red-shouldered Hawk (returning bird from last year perhaps)
• 1 Killdeer
• 1 Eastern Towhee
• 1 Gray Catbird
• 5 Fox Sparrow
• 1 White-winged Crossbill
• 1 Redpoll

Lowlights and Misses:

• 0 Horned Grebe (Last missed in 2014)
• 0 Cackling Goose (Last missed in 2010)
• 0 Gadwall (Last missed in 2013)
• 0 Mockingbird (Last missed in 2015)
• 5 Greater Scaup (Lowest since 1988)
• 2 American Kestrel (matches our lowest ever, and a far cry from when we would routinely tally 30-60 birds in the 1990s)
• 16 American Herring Gull (lowest ever)

Below is the full species list: