By Jeremy Hatt

The 2024 Holiday Beach CBC took place on Saturday, December 28th. The count includes Holiday Beach Conservation Area, Big Creek, the Lower Detroit River north to LaSalle (Lower Detroit River IBA), Boblo Island and surrounding areas. Boblo Island continues to be inaccessible due to construction on the island but the rest of the count circle received great coverage. 26 participants volunteered for the count, tallying a whopping 93 species and 48,107 individual birds. This species count beats the previous record of 88 set in 2023 and was the highest species count of all the CBC’s in Essex County this winter!

Volunteers experienced unseasonably warm weather w/ temperatures ranging from 9C in the morning to 13C in the afternoon. The sky was sunny all day and winds were a moderate 20-27km/h SW. By mid-afternoon, one could comfortably wear just a sweatshirt or light jacket. Lake Erie, the Detroit River, and inland waters were all open, which resulted in a good diversity of waterfowl. Significant counts of several dabbling ducks were made and southwest winds encouraged a good movement of waterfowl on Lake Erie as well.

The best bird of the count was a long overdue species add for the Holiday Beach CBC, a lone White-winged Scoter flying west past the Delta Trail (spotted by Michael McAllister w/ Cameron Chevalier and Harrison Priebe and subsequently seen flying past Holiday Beach by Jacob Stasso).

A stunning number of record high counts were set this year:

Cackling Goose – 19 (previous high of 8)
Trumpeter Swan – 4 (previous high of 1)
Tundra Swan – 1,505 (previous high of 1,438)
American Wigeon – 42 (previous high of 35)
American Black Duck – 718 (previous high of 364)
Northern Pintail – 34 (previous high of 18)
Bufflehead – 286 (previous high of 183)
Hooded Merganser – 86 (previous high of 33)
Red-breasted Merganser – 1,446 (previous high of 1,003)
Eastern Screech-Owl – 7 (previous high of 6)
Peregrine Falcon – 3 (previous high of 2)
White-throated Sparrow – 349 (previous high of 124)
Common Grackle – 441 (previous high of 376)
Purple Finch – 16 (previous high of 2)

Other notable sightings included:

Wood Duck – 2 (often missed on this count)
Green-winged Teal – 1 (seen on only one previous count)
Northern Shoveler – 23 (often missed on this count)
Canvasback – 28,394 (second-highest count behind 40,501)
Iceland Gull – 1 (seen on only one previous count)
Lesser Black-backed Gull – 1 (seen on three previous counts)
Northern Mockingbird – 1 (seen on three previous counts)
Killdeer – 1 (seen on two previous counts)
Sandhill Crane – 7 (seen on three previous counts)
Northern Saw-Whet Owl – 1 (seen on three previous counts)
Belted Kingfisher – 1 (often missed on this count)
Lapland Longspur – 5 (seen on two previous counts)
Eastern Towhee – 1 (often missed on this count)

Notable misses this year include Snow Goose (seen the previous four years of the count), Double-crested Cormorant (often at least one found on the Detroit River), Rough-legged Hawk, American Coot (sometimes found in the Holiday Beach marsh), Short-eared Owl (abundant in the county this winter), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (several wintering this year), Eastern Phoebe, Northern Shrike, Marsh Wren, American Pipit (many persisting into the winter this year), Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, and Pine Siskin.

The Holiday Beach CBC also got some local media attention. Jeremy Hatt and Kory Renaud were interviewed at the Big Creek Conservation Area during the count and an article appeared in the Windsor Star covering some highlights of the CBC. The article can be read here: https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/mild-winter-brings-high-windsor-essex-christmas-bird-count

Many thanks to all the Area Leaders and dedicated volunteers for their efforts, and to Kory and Sarah Renaud for hosting another great roundup and serving a much welcomed hot meal at the end of the day! Everyone really stepped up this year and helped make it a fantastic count.

Jeremy Hatt & Kory Renaud