The results are in and the count week is over. Officially this 39th Christmas Bird Count, centred around St. Clair National Wildlife Area along the east side of Lake St. Clair, ended up with 93 species, one better than the previous high of 92 in 2014. And one could make the argument that since Thayer's Gull, which was one of the 92 species that year, has now been dropped from full species status, the 2019 count is two higher than our previous high.
The weather was quite decent for a change, at least compared to the bitter cold and snow of the previous count, which tallied a mere 62 species. Our most recent ten year average is 78 species, so hitting 93 was major indeed. In fact I believe there were only three counts across the entire province that exceeded this total. Considering that an estimated 75% or more of this count's circle is active agricultural land, or Lake St. Clair itself, or private wetlands that were inaccessible, the total of 93 is even more impressive.
Waterbirds, and especially waterfowl, are critically important for the species diversity and overall numbers for this count. All the water was open this year, making it attractive to the myriad ducks, geese and swans. While the cold snap of November and early December caused many ducks to move on, we were fortunate that some environmental conditions caused a major influx of ducks, especially Mallards into the area just a few days before our count. At times the skies seemed full of winged waterfowl. The NWA had lots of open water patches and almost every one had many ducks and geese.
(Note: I did not have my camera with me for most of the day, so most of these photos are from a bit earlier time.)
We achieved new high totals for several species, including over 46000 Mallards.
American Black Ducks set a new record with 7560 being recorded.
Our record for Tundra Swan is almost 11000; we had about half that many, which is still quite a few!
We set a new high for Ring-necked Duck at 215.
Both scaup were represented.
Only 6 Hooded Mergansers were recorded.
We had 71 Snow Geese, so our record of 87 was not in jeopardy. We also had two Ross's Geese, which doubled our previous high.
 |
| Snow Goose |
There were eagles aplenty. Our previous high number for this count was a pretty impressive total of 27 birds achieved in 2016. The 50 birds recorded this year blew that number out of the water. What helped, I am sure, is that because there was no ice on the lake, all the eagles were limited to perching in trees along the shoreline as they waited for a crippled duck or dead fish to come into sight.
We set a new record for Northern Flicker, with 11 being seen.
Cedar Waxwings are pretty uncommon on this count, so we were pleased that 17 were seen.
Not quite as infrequently seen as the waxwings, but still pretty hit and miss, is Common Redpoll. With the eruption of winter type finches into southern Ontario lately we were happy to count 32 of this species. Our record of 607 redpolls of 2008 will likely be intact for quite awhile yet!
It used to be that getting even one Snowy Owl was an achievement, and for the first couple of decades of this count we missed them more often than we got them. But something is happening to this arctic breeder, as we have had them for 8 straight years, and got 6 this year. It is a far cry from the 18 we had in 2016, but it is nice to consider it a regular species nowadays.
The waterfowl hunting period is now over for another season. There still are lots of ducks, geese and swans in the area, and as long as much of the lake and wetland area is open water, lots of them will remain. They won't be disturbed from being hunted, and will continue to travel between the wetlands and the fields nearby in relative safety. If a cool-down settles in over the next few weeks, with a bit of snow cover as being forecast, some will likely move on to points south so there won't be as many to see. But the St. Clair NWA is worth a visit at any time of year.
No comments:
Post a Comment