Birding

2025 Birdathon–George Pond’s Report

Photo, above: Great Crested Flycatcher Contributed by George Pond Three of us, my son and daughter-in-law David and Heather started “Birdathon 2025” just before 7 a.m. on May 16, an hour or so later than planned because of an early morning storm. Birds in the St Williams forest were mostly back on territory and were actively singing. We had soon identified a number of warblers including Chestnut-sided, yellow, common yellow-throat, hooded, ovenbird, blue-winged, magnolia, yellow-rumped and pine. Rose-breasted grosbeaks, scarlet tanagers, Indigo buntings, eastern towhees, chipping sparrows, a red-breasted nuthatch, wood thrush, catbird, chickadees, red-eyed vireos, great-crested and least flycatchers and a surprise black-billed cuckoo were all found. A field in the Backus woods complex netted field, song, and grasshopper sparrows but no vesper sparrow sang. We walked into the pond in the Backus woods and flushed a pair of…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Book Review: The Red-winged Blackbird

The Red-winged Blackbird: The Biology of a Strongly Polygynous Songbird, by Les Beletsky Reviewed by Jeff Hiebert An excellent overview of the biology of a much studied and common bird. The book focuses on Red-winged Blackbirds' breeding biology and the studies most focused on are for a particular population in Washington state which the author has studied for years. One of the interesting points the book puts across is that Red-winged blackbirds are common across the United States, southern Canada, and Mexico but they exhibit different behaviours in different populations/regions. This is sort of a rule across animal species, but it was interesting to see it demonstrated and explored with this familiar bird. Lots of interesting discussions of how animal behaviour research is done and how we know so much about a species because we've studied them for so long…
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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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