Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count Report

Brown creeper (George Pond photo)

Report by Adam Timpf

The 32nd Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count (CBC) took place Sunday, December 16, 2018.

The Woodhouse CBC is centred seven kilometers east of Simcoe, at the crossroads of Highway 3 and Cockshutt Road at Renton in Norfolk County and roughly covers from Port Dover to Waterford and just west of Simcoe to east of Jarvis.

Weather: The weather this year was relatively warm, being on the plus side of 0. The lack of precipitation made for comfortable birding conditions, but the lack of snow cover made it tricky to find the birds since they were not concentrated. The wind was mostly calm or light from the northeast.

Total Species: 82 with 1 additional Count Week species (average for the last 31 years = 80; average for the last 10 years = 86)

Total Individuals: 16,635 (average for the last 31 years = 25,827, average for the last 10 years = 24,038)

Number of participants: 37

New Species to the Count: None

Snow Goose (Len Grincevicius photo)

Count Week Species: a Snow Goose that had been hanging out with the Canada Geese in downtown Simcoe

Record Highs: (previous high in brackets)
Horned Grebe                             14         (5)
Brown Creeper                           18         (14)
Eastern Bluebird                        93        (86)
Common Raven                           2           (2) Resident pair near Port Dover

Record Lows: (previous low in brackets)
Great Black-backed Gull            1          (2)

Notable Absentees:
Brown-headed Cowbird: 1st year missed in 32 counts
Ruffed Grouse: 9th year in a row
Rusty Blackbird: 1st miss since 2009
A variety of ducks considering all the open water

Also Worthy of Mention:
Common Loon: 1 (8^th record)
Trumpeter Swan: 1 (1^st since 2010)
Eastern Phoebe: 1 (1^st since 2007 and 4^th record)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 2 (1^st since 2006)
Evening Grosbeak: 27 (highest count since 1997)

Full Species List and Tally