Birding

George Pond’s Birdathon Report for 2024

(photo, above: Chipping Sparrow. Photo taken by NFN member George Pond) By NFN Member George Pond May 21 turned out to be a beautiful, but very hot day, a wonderful day to be in the “Great-out-of-doors.” I met my son David and daughter-in-law Heather at their rural home, south of Simcoe at 6 a.m. We ticked off the Great Horned Owl fledglings that had been begging for food throughout the night and headed for the St. Williams forest. It was already quite hot but there was enough song to keep us interested and we had soon ticked off Scarlet Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded, Mourning, Chestnut-sided, Blue-winged, Pine, Ovenbird and Magnolia warblers. Red-eyed Vireos were common as were Eastern Towhees, Song and Chipping sparrows, Indigo Buntings and House Wrens. A Red-breasted Nuthatch was the only one of…
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Great Canadian Birdathon 2024: Mike McMillan’s Report

(Photo, above: Northern Flicker. Photo by member Jeff Hiebert) I had planned to do the birdathon with Barry Jones on either May 13 or May 14. However, the weather was unsuitable those two days. Since Barry was not available on the 15th and 16th I decided to split the 24 hours over those two days. So that I had company and a spotter each day two friends, Jo-Anne Barber and Krystyna Tanner, graciously agreed to accompany me, each for part of a day. On the 15th Jo-Anne and I intended to start at the Townsend sewage lagoons, but we were unable to get into them. At 1:15 p.m. we began the birdathon at a small stream down the road from the lagoons. Here we heard a Common Yellowthroat and perched on a fence was a Savannah Sparrow. We drove to…
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A Green Heron Stalks the Shallows

Article by Jeff Hiebert, NFN Member Over the past few years, I have come to appreciate how beautiful and wonderful birds are. Along with that appreciation has been the realization that there are diverse birds within a short walk or drive of my home. I have encountered new species of birds almost every time I go out to my new favourite birding destination: Long Point. Globally renowned for being a biodiversity hotspot, and a corridor for migrating birds crossing the Great Lakes, Long Point is full of a variety of freshwater habitats and a corresponding diversity of bird species. My most recent exciting encounter was with a species I had never before seen up close. Before this past year “Heron” meant the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), the only species of heron I saw regularly, certainly the most conspicuous heron…
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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…
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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…
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35th Christmas Bird Count, Woodhouse

Report by Adam Timpf These are the results of the 35th Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count (CBC) held on Sunday December 19th, 2021. 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. Conditions were pretty much ideal with temps just below freezing, little to no wind, clear skies, and a light dusting of snow on the ground. 31 field birders covered the count area split between 17 groups, plus 5 feeder watchers. While I initially reported we tallied 94 species, and then 95, I can confirm we tallied 94 species on the day which ties last year's count as the 3rd highest species total ever, and the highest since the record of…
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2020 Christmas Bird Count – Fisherville

(Feature photo, above: Tundra Swans, photo by Diane Salter) Report by Linda Thrower, Compiler 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 28th, 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 28th. 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.…
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Berries Are For the Birds

Article and photos by Inga Hinnerichsen The last of the fall flowers have withered. Only dry brown stems remain of their former glory... but not all is lost yet. There are still lots of protein rich seed packets left at the ends of many stems. They not only insure the new plants germinating in the spring, but also provide nutrition for many over-wintering birds and small mammals in our area. By now most of the insect eating migratory birds have left on their annual trek south. A few hardy (foolhardy?) individuals are sticking it out for the winter. A handful of Robins always ignore the call of the south, but their normal ground foraging will be rudely interrupted by frost and a blanket of the white stuff. What to do? The smaller seed-eaters will soon polish off the remaining plant…
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2020 Long Point Butterfly Count Results

By Adam Timpf (NFN member and event organizer) The heat and humidity were a challenge to the comfort and energy of observers, but the weather was far better than the rains we had last year. Some people (author included) found the butterflies to be in short supply, while others reported good numbers and diversity. It was feast or famine depending where you were looking. We had great coverage with 35 observers in 15 parties spending 67.5 hours in the field, covering approximately 85.5 km. 3997 individuals of 54 species were recorded. This is our fifth highest individual total (average 2615), and just shy of our record species total of 56. We set several record highs and even managed to add a new species to the count! Highlights New to the count: Mulberry Wing (3). Amazingly, three groups photographed three individual Mulberry…
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Fisherville Christmas Bird Count (December 2019)

Report by Linda Thrower, Compiler December 28th, 2019 certainly didn’t bring the weather of 2017, but who needs wind chills of -30 C while trying to count birds? Instead it was on the plus side with the temperature of +2 C at midnight and no winds to speak of until later in the day. And who could complain about having open water—not the waterfowl. But even with the weather co-operating, the birds were well hidden. Did they know all of us were looking for them? Thankfully, there were a bunch of keen eyes out there and some really good species popped out here and there. So, the new high and low numbers look like this: Horned Grebes were found in their lowest numbers since 2001 when 197 were counted. This year, 76 were seen. American Wigeons are back on the…
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