Although weather played a factor for visibility, the annual Christmas Bird Count came with a few surprises.
Rain and snow started in the early afternoon of the count on Dec. 15 and when the weather turns birds tend to go into hiding but not all was lost.
There were a surprising amount of eastern-screech owls spotted. With 32 seen, it beat last year’s record of 27.
Guelph’s Christmas Bird Count coordinator Mike Cadman expects the record has to do with more people out looking for owls. There is better equipment and owl calls are played to get a response. “But it could be too, that the milder winters we're having are helping the owl populations increase,” said Cadman.
Two long-ears and two barred owls were seen in the afternoon of the count. It’s not surprising to see owls during the day. It was surprising to see those kinds of owls at all for the count. Barred owls are gradually increasing and only once before were two found during the count.
There was nesting of the barred owls in the early spring this year. Locations of the owls aren't usually publicized since owls can be easily disturbed. “They're hard to see, so you have to root around a lot in order to see them. So we don't encourage people to go look for them,” said Cadman.
There were 75 participants in the count and Cadman thinks there is interest because people are getting curious about what they’re hearing around them. He referenced a free app called Merlin Bird ID where it listens to birds around you to identify what the types of birds are.
A total of 15,478 birds were counted and was lower than last year’s number of 17,676, likely due to the poorer weather visibility conditions. There were 64 species of birds spotted down from last year’s 72.
Bird count records were set with mute swans (seven, previous high six), hooded merganser (62, previous record 38), cooper’s hawk (15, previous record 12), winter wren (12, previous record 10), and red-bellied woodpecker (36, which out numbered the hairy woodpecker at 20).
Tied records were one chipping sparrow, one brown thrasher and 80 golden-crowned kinglet.
For the first time in a number of years there wasn’t a sighting of the common goldeneye.
With mild fall seasons more birds who don’t usually stay during the winter are “wintering” here, said Cadman. The eastern bluebird is one of them and had 19 sightings during the count.
Generally, birds that migrate long distances are the ones declining the most and this is probably because “humanity is changing the landscape, reducing the suitability of a lot of areas for birds, but we’re also changing the climate and that’s really messing things up for birds,” he said. This means birds deal with climate change from here to South America.
A trend seen in southern Ontario is the increase in bald eagles. DDT was banned in the 1970s and “now, the thing that's interesting is it's, as far as I can see, it's rebounded past what it ever was,” said Cadman. He thinks it also has to do with the reservoirs and lakes, the areas where pairs of bald eagles nest.
There wasn’t a record number of bald eagles spotted for the count. Two were seen and this a surprisingly low number because at almost any given time you can see a pair at Guelph Lake. In 2022, the bird count saw 13 bald eagles.
More information on the bird count is available online and results of this year's count will be made available in the coming weeks.
