2020 Christmas Bird Count – Fisherville

(Feature photo, above: Tundra Swans, photo by Diane Salter)
Report by Linda Thrower, Compiler

Hooded Mergansers (Photo by Len Grincevicius)

As a compiler I was lucky enough to have a Christmas Bird Count this year. A lot of people had to do double duty and cover more than one square to say this count was covered. So, with a lot of co-operation from the birders and the weather the Fisherville CBC was held on December 28^th, 2020.

It had snowed for Christmas which a lot of parents and Santa were glad to see. The luck continued with enough warmer temperatures and rain to take away all of that snow by the 28^th. But luck can only go so far and once again the winds picked up just enough to send all of the smaller species of birds and even some of the larger ones into hiding. So, once again, those out counting birds were doing a lot more searching than counting. Records always have highs and lows no matter what the weather and here they are.

• Pied –billied Grebe – 1 counted this year, the same as the last time this species was on the count in 2011.
• Horned Grebe – back on the count with 76 being seen last year and only 4 found this count.
• Double-crested Comorant – this count the number was 2 and in 2012 5 were counted.
• Snow Geese –in 2016, 5 were counted in 2020, 2 were found.
• Tundra Swans – in 2016, 79 were spotted; this year 91 were seen.
• Ruddy Ducks – in 2016, 3 were counted; this count 1 was spotted.
• Bald Eagle – they did not care for the weather and they came in with their lowest number since 2006 when 2 were seen. This count they are up one.
• Golden Eagle – is back in square 4 for the second time; also seen in square 3 in 2016.
• Northern Harrier – has its lowest number since 1989 with only 5 counted.
• Rough-legged Hawk – lowest number since 2006 when 6 were also counted.
• American Kestrel – highest number since 2005 when 44 were counted. This year was 41.
• Ravens have their highest number since 1989. Four were counted in 2017 and 2019. This count 6 were spotted.
• White-winged Crossbills – have the highest number since 2008 when 1650 were counted. None until this year when 15 were seen.
• Redpolls – have a high number with 338 this year. In 1993 857 were seen.
• Pine Siskins – have the highest number since 2008 when 26 were counted. This year 11 were seen.

Here is the rest of the data:

Weather: 3^oC, 30 km winds out of the south-west; light rain in the morning, late afternoon sleet; cloud cover 70%. Water was open.

Cardinal (photo by Jan Grincevicius)

Now all the birders who were nice enough to be out counting the birds, pandemic or not:
Pam Arthur           Beth Powell
Cody Bassindale   Bill Read
Judy Boone           Jennifer Rogers
Mike Boone          Jeff Skevington
Rob Crawford       Richard Skevington
Rick Dowson        Rob Smuck
Jerry Guenther    Alan Thrower
Audrey Heagy      Linda Thrower
Barry Jones          Adam Timpf
David Okines       Matt Timpf

Thank you one and all for all your effort!

The Species Counted were as follows: