SPNC CBC - Sat. Dec. 17th

[Bird Brain]

Hi everyone.  Today was the South Peel Naturalists' Club Christmas Bird Count.  I was counting at the North end of count area #5.   Disappointing very low # of species and low total # of birds.  Ticked me off because all week I was seeing tons of birds that weren't around today - Murphy's Law!!!  

This morning's weather started out cloudy and -13c windchill.  Brrrr!  Then it was snowing steadily with huge snowflakes.  This was pretty actually and felt like walking in Winter Wonderland.  Then it was sun/cloud and -12c windchill.

Here's the total of what I sighted:

Canada Goose x 61
American Black Duck x 2
Mallard x 73
Ring-billed Gull x 42
Mourning Dove x 1
Belted Kingfisher x 1
Downy Woodpecker x 1
Blue Jay x 4
American Crow x 3
Black-capped Chickadee x 11
Northern Mockingbird x 1
Dark-eyed Junco x 3
Northern Cardinal x 12
House Finch x 1
House Sparrow x 126

Species:  15
Total # of birds:  342

Break-down of today's parks:

Lake Wabukayne (NE corner of Glen Erin Dr./Windwood Dr., behind condo and school):

American Black Duck x 2
Mallard x 28
Belted Kingfisher x 1
Black-capped Chickadee x 6
Northern Cardinal x 2
House Sparrows x 2

Plowman's Park (NE corner of Glen Erin Dr./Montevideo, behind church and school):

American Crow x 1

Maplewood Park (East side of Glen Erin Dr., just North of Aquitaine Ave.):

Downy Woodpecker x 1
Blue Jay x 1
American Crow x 2
Dark-eyed Junco x 3
Northern Cardinal x 3
House Finch x 1
House Sparrow x 37

Lake Aquitaine (SE corner of Glen Erin Dr./Aquitaine Ave., behind Meadowvale Community Centre):

Canada Goose x 61
Mallard x 45
Ring-billed Gull x 42
Mourning Dove x 1
Blue Jay x 3
Black-capped Chickadee x 5
Northern Mockingbird x 1
Northern Cardinal x 7
House Sparrow x 87

[Reuven_M]

I thoroughly covered erindale and riverwood parks, and found some very good numbers of various species:

Canada Goose  26
American Black Duck  1
Mallard  42
Cooper's Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Ring-billed Gull  5
Herring Gull  2
Rock Pigeon  12
Mourning Dove  36
Great Horned Owl  1
Long-eared Owl  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Downy Woodpecker  12
Hairy Woodpecker  4
Pileated Woodpecker  1
Black-capped Chickadee  71
White-breasted Nuthatch  8
Brown Creeper  4
Winter Wren  3
Golden-crowned Kinglet  4
American Robin  26
European Starling  46
American Tree Sparrow  3
Song Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  4
Dark-eyed Junco  51
Northern Cardinal  33
House Finch  37
American Goldfinch  133
House Sparrow  22

Probablythe best winter day I've had here

[Bird Brain]

Hi Reuven.  Wow, what a fantastic list and numbers!  Lucky you with hawks, owls, woodpeckers, etc.  

Great that it was your best day - unfortunately, today was my worst.  Numbers in past CBC's and even GBBC's in February have been way better!  

Did you attend the get-together afterwards in Oakville?

[Reuven_M]

Yeah, it was great, especially around the feeders in Riverwood in the morning, never seen so many cardinals in such a small area before! I rarely see owls, seeing two different species in the same day so close to home was a great treat. Too bad you didn't get much, seems like most people felt the same way. Couldn't make it to the roundup unfortunately.

[Bird Brain]

I've sighted LEO at Riverwood before but never GHO.  Apparently there's some event coming up soon in early January with a bird walk and hot chocolate!    I will take a look at the Riverwood website tomorrow.  

I didn't attend the roundup tonight either.  

Hopefully there will be some rare/unusual sightings over the next 3 days to complete count week!

[lovemypt]

Nice find with the owls today, I was there later in morning and must of search every tree but missed both of them , must of missed those 2 trees....  

 I found an usual number of Red-bellied woodpeckers feeding on the logs along the trails where people have left seeds and where able to get quite close for some shots, greatest number along path coming down from Riverwood parking lot

[Bird Brain]

must of missed those 2 trees....

 :lol: Good one!  

I found an usual number of Red-bellied woodpeckers feeding on the logs along the trails where people have left seeds and where able to get quite close for some shots, greatest number along path coming down from Riverwood parking lot

How many did you sight?  Would love to see photos!  

[Brian Bailey]

I participated in the Toronto count on Sunday in the High Park area.  I was in the northeast section of the park in the morning.  As usual, that area was pretty quiet.  We had to work for 15 species, although we had good numbers of some.  For the whole section (which includes Sunnyside) we had 49 species despite missing some relatively likely ones (no Trumpeter Swans, Kestrel, kinglets, siskins, owls, or redpolls).

Highlights included Common Grackle, Merlin, White-throated Sparrow & Song Sparrow.

BB

[Bird Brain]

Hi Brian.  Merlin ... nice!  

Have you been looking through the Ontario Birds site?  Interesting reading with various cities CBC results.

My friend Jim sent me results for Edmonton, Alberta ... 55 species and total # of birds 19,645+.  Wow!   Some of the species had truly huge numbers!  

Can't wait for GBBC in February - 4 days of bird counting fun!  
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/