Bird Counts

65th Long Point Christmas Bird Count

Photo, above: Orange-Crowned Warbler, taken by Stu Mackenzie Story by Stu Mackenzie The 65th Long Point Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was held on Saturday, December 20, 2025, incorporating both the Long Point Family Winter Bird Count and the traditional formalized CBC. The count covers a ~24-kilometre diameter circle centred on the lighthouse south of St. Williams. Over 100 participants surveyed sixteen territories, contributing approximately 120 hours in the field, travelling 400 km by car and more than 110 km on foot. In total 27,710 birds were observed of 108 species. Highlights and Low-lights: Green-winged Teal - First time missed on the count since 2016. Virginia Rail – Tracks of a rail were found on fresh snow from the night before which was determined to be a Virginia Rail. This was the 17th for the count and the first since 1997.…
continue reading

35th Fisherville Christmas Bird Count–Report

Photo of Eastern Bluebird by Len Grincevicius Report by Sarah Sharp This year marked Fisherville’s 35th 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,…
continue reading

Long Point Christmas Bird Count 2024

Photo (above): Sandhill cranes in flight (photo by Larry Monczka) Report by Stu Mackenzie The 64th Long Point Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was held on Saturday December 14. This count includes the Long Point Family Winter Bird Count and the traditional formalized count. The count covers a ~24-kilometre circle centered on the lighthouse south of St. Williams. Over 120 participants surveyed sixteen territories in the count circle, dedicating 154 hours in the field, covering 400 km by car and more than 140 km on foot. Together we counted an astounding 40,556 birds of 112 species tying the fourth highest species count ever! Counts were on par with the most recent 10-year average of ~42,000 birds of 107 species, and well above the long-term average of 29,543 of 102 species. Highlights are summarized below which include a number of record high…
continue reading

Results of the 2024 Fisherville Christmas Bird Count

Photo (above): Northern Shrike (photo by Sarah Sharp) Report by the Haldimand Bird Observatory (Sarah Sharp) The 24th Fisherville Christmas Bird Count was held on Saturday, December 28th, 2024. Every year there are fluctuating high counts and low counts with a varying species composition, and this year was no different! Last year the Haldimand Bird Observatory took over the coordination and compilation of the count and we were happy to do so again this year! Without further ado, here is a summary of this year’s count… Participants: First and foremost a big thank you to our dedicated returning and new volunteers who collected this valuable data! Cody Bassindale Diane Salter Duane Brown Greg Salter Audrey Heagy Bill Smith Anne Marie Henry Tom Thomas Elizabeth Kirchin Adam Timpf Micheal Kirchin Matthew Timpf Dave Maida Jacob Wever Hugh McArthur Julia Wever George…
continue reading

Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count Report

Featured Photo (above): Horned Lark (photo by Sue Drotos) Article contributed by Adam Timpf The 38th Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday, December 15th, 2024. The Woodhouse CBC is centred seven kilometres east of Simcoe, at the crossroads of Highway 3 and Cockshutt Road at Renton, and roughly covers from Port Dover to Waterford and just west of Simcoe to east of Jarvis. Thirty-seven field birders covered the count area. Eleven feeder watchers also contributed data. Conditions were comfortable to start the day with temperatures above 0, light southeast winds (11-16 km/h), zero snow on the ground, and plenty of open water with little ice cover. Some light rain after lunch made for a quiet afternoon, but didn't affect the count to a huge degree. The mild temperatures leading up to the count meant waterfowl diversity and numbers…
continue reading

Christmas Bird Count – Fisherville, 2023

Report by the Haldimand Bird Observatory Photo, above: Sandhill Cranes – Photo by Member, Jeff Hiebert December 28th, 2023 was a warm, foggy, wet, and dreary Christmas Bird Count day but that didn’t stop our 22 participants from spotting a wide assortment of species. The lack of snow and cold meant low counts of Snow Buntings (3) and the complete absence of Horned Larks and Snowy Owls, but good conditions for a few surprises instead. An American Goshawk in zone 6 was the first to be counted since 2013 and is one of only 10 individuals across all counts (occurring in 8 other years since 1989).  A Little Gull spotted mixed in with Bonaparte’s Gulls in zone 5 had not been counted since 2007 and is one of only 5 individuals across all counts too (detected in 3 other years…
continue reading

37th Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count Results

(Image above: Trumpeter Swans – Photo by Member, Jan Grincevicius) Report by Adam Timpf 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 Dover to Waterford and just west of Simcoe to east of Jarvis. These are the results of the 37th Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count held on Sunday December 17th, 2023. Thirty-three field birders covered the count area plus five feeder watchers. Conditions were wet with rain and drizzle throughout the day, temperatures around 6-7 degrees Celsius, moderate south winds (16-21 km/h), zero snow on the ground, and plenty of open water as nothing was frozen. The mild temperatures leading up to the count contributed to us setting new count highs for 4 species of waterfowl, while the rainy conditions meant low…
continue reading