The Egret Article

By: Jeremy Hatt

The first ever Comber CBC took place on December 22^nd, 2024, w/ 16 keen and enthusiastic volunteers. A total of 22.75km were walked for 10 hours and 583km driven for 32.75 hours and one hour was spent owling.

The Count was one of the coldest days of the winter period in 2024 for the region w/ temperatures ranging from -6C in the morning to -1C by the afternoon. Sunny skies and a light south wind helped make the day comfortable for birding. Most inland water and about 500m of the edge of Lake St. Clair were completely frozen.

The Comber CBC circle spans across Essex and Chatham-Kent Counties and includes several birding hotspots including Ruscom Shores Conservation Area, The Trans Canada Trail from Staples to Comber, Big ‘O’ Conservation Area, Comber Sewage Lagoons, Rowsom’s Tilbury West Conservation Area, Tremblay Beach Conservation Area, Stoney Point Sewage Lagoons, Tilbury Sewage Lagoons, Northside Park, and several parkettes along the Lake St. Clair shoreline.

By the end of the count, a total of 76 species and 26,812 individuals were counted.

The best bird of the Count was a male Yellow-headed Blackbird found by Paul Pratt and Paula O’Rourke at the Comber Agris Co-op. Other highlights included 1 Wood Duck, 2 Glaucous Gulls, 1 Iceland Gull, 1 Snowy Owl, 11 Short-eared Owls, 1 Northern Shrike, 2 Common Ravens, 1 American Pipit, 2 Fox Sparrows, and 1 Eastern Towhee. The Northern Shrike was flushed by Jacob Stasso on his way to the roundup showing that it’s never too late to add a species to the Count! At least three separate areas had Short-eared Owls active at dusk.

Notable counts included 1,064 Tundra Swans, 1,418 Sandhill Cranes (on the move after a significant drop in temperature across the province), 537 American Herring Gulls, 27 Northern Harriers, 1,728 House Sparrows, 8,997 Snow Buntings, 331 American Tree Sparrows, 16 White-crowned Sparrows, and 983 Dark-eyed Juncos.

Birds seemed to be scarce in forested areas but passerines were concentrated in higher numbers along creek edges, tree lines, and weedy fields; particularly sparrows. Winter finches were very low in number overall but other winter specialties like Snow Bunting were easily found throughout the Circle. Rafts of ducks reaching the thousands can often be found on the east end of Lake St. Clair but the freeze up made it more difficult to get high numbers of waterfowl and dabbling ducks were especially absent due to frozen inland waters. Raptors were easily found throughout the Count Circle and four species of owls were tallied.

Notable misses included Redhead, Bufflehead, Wilson’s Snipe, Bonaparte’s Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Red-shouldered Hawk, Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Marsh Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Purple Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Yellowthroat, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

A casual roundup was held at the A&W in Comber to tally species totals and individual counts.

Next year’s CBC will be held on December 21^st.

By Paul Pratt

This 24 km diameter count circle includes McGregor, Essex, Harrow and Kingsville. Our 39th annual count was held December 14. 35 participants record almost 500 km by car and 77 km by foot to record 82 species and 19,571 individual birds. Birds seen count week but missed on count day were Sandhill Crane, Short-eared Owl and Northern Shrike. Following the count observers gathered at Tom and Peggy Hurst’s home for lively discussion on the results and an excellent potluck dinner. A big thanks to all returning veterans, new birders and especially Tom and Peggy for being wonderful hosts.

Over the years we have tallied a remarkable total of 165 species and 2,133,298 individuals and recorded the annual Canadian high count for twenty species on one or more occasions. This year we added one new species for the count, Clay-colored Sparrow, found in a weedy field that was
overflowing with sparrows. A few highlights recorded during the count included high counts of 16 Whitewinged Scoter (record high), 23 Bald Eagle (record high), 3 Merlin (a tied record high), 895 American Tree Sparrow, 190 White-throated Sparrow, 1873 Dark-eyed Junco (record high), 683 Common Grackle (record high), and 774 Brown-headed Cowbird (record high). Our biggest misses this year were Eastern Screech-Owl and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Join us next year for the 40th Cedar Creek count on December 20, 2025

PARTICIPANTS: J Affleck, J Bensette, J Burk, K Burk, M Burkoski, A Campbell, K Cedar, L Cedar, K Derbyshire, P DesJardins, K Fawdry, L Foy, J Hatt, N Herke, P Hurst, T Hurst, C Lapain, S Laurin, D Lee, C Lee, P Lee, M Lee, D Loncke, C Maiolani, J Matte, J McGorman, L Onysko, P O’Rourke, Adam Pinch, P Pratt, P Renaud, B Sanford, D Ware, A Wiebe, K Wiebe, I Woodfield.

Species Count:

By Sarah Rupert, Promotion Officer PPNP

Point Pelee National Park was excited to host its Annual Christmas Bird Count on Monday, December 16, 2024. This was the 72nd year for the
count, held in the 15 km diameter circle known as the Pelee Birding Area. Results have been forwarded to the National Audubon Society and Birds
Canada to be incorporated in data collected from across North America. This information is used by scientists and ecologists across the continent
to gain insight into the long-term health of bird populations and the environment.

52 people participated from across southwestern Ontario, including members of the Caldwell First Nation. We again welcome many first time
Christmas Bird Count participants and they were rewarded with some great observations. Participants were invited to attend the bird count
wrap-up at the Visitor Centre with a tasty dinner graciously supplied by the Friends of Point Pelee.

This year’s counters were greeted with a very damp count day, with periods of dense fog, rain and overall greyness. Temperatures were quite
mild for this time of year, ranging from 6 to 8C. Despite the damp weather, a good total number of individuals was recorded (59 676). The
lake was completely open, so there were some large rafts of ducks to count and still water in the ponds were partially frozen, with open spots in areas
to allow for Great Blue Herons to stick around.

The total number of species observed on the count day was 90, with an additional 7 count week species.

Count highlights included:
Black-legged Kittiwake – An adult was observed in Wheatley Harbour during the CW
Five species of Owls – On the count day observers found Eastern Screechowl, Great Horned Owl and Long-eared Owl, while Northern Saw-whet
Owl and Short-eared Owl were observed during the count week
Wild Turkey (low numbers) – after missing this species in 2021, it was found this year. Numbers in recent years show a dramatic shift in the
population of this species in the park, with far fewer individuals present.
Northern Mockingbird – overwintering bird continued in a Leamington neighbourhood
Eastern Meadowlark – 2 lingering individuals were spotted with groups of blackbirds.

A full listing of all the sightings broken down by area and a map are included.

Thank you to all the volunteers who were able to contribute at this very busy time of year.
Next year’s count will be held on Monday, December 15, 2025.

We hope that you will be able to join us!
Sarah Rupert,
Count Compiler
Promotion Officer, Point Pelee National Park