By Jeremy Hatt
The Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club (ECFNC) stepped into the role of Caretaker for the Lower Detroit River Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) in 2015 and started conducting waterfowl counts in the area in 2016. Originally named Important Bird Areas, Birds Canada updated the title to Key Biodiversity Areas to better reflect their ecosystems as a whole. There are Key Biodiversity Areas found across North America including six within Essex County. The Lower Detroit River KBA extends from the Detroit River mouth in Amherstburg to the north end of Fighting Island in LaSalle.
The Lower Detroit River KBA is labeled a Key Biodiversity Area for the high numbers of waterfowl that stage here during the winter months. In particular, Canvasbacks can be found in the tens of thousands and the region supports at least >7% of the global population of the species in the winter, but possibly more. Highest concentrations of Canvasback occur in Essex County where the mouths of the Detroit River meet Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair during the coldest months when both lakes are partially to mostly frozen. In mild parts of the winter when waters are open, large numbers of Canvasback can also be seen on the Detroit River north of Boblo Island and Crystal Island, as well as further east in Lake St. Clair.
In 2018, ECFNC reached out to the Detroit Audubon Society to see if they had volunteers who would be willing to count waterfowl from the Michigan side of the Detroit River, particularly in areas where they are not visible from the Ontario side. Detroit Audubon Society was on board and since then have partnered with ECFNC in a bi-national waterfowl count (with the exception of 2021 due to Covid-19 lockdowns). The bi-national counts have been successful enough that efforts are now underway to extend the KBA to include the Michigan side of the Lower Detroit River as well as the Detroit River mouth at Lake St. Clair.
Waterfowl counts in 2022 were held on January 15th, January 29th, and February 12th. That year proved why the count being bi-national is so important since most of the Canvasback tallied were spotted from the Michigan side in areas not visible from Amherstburg or LaSalle (primarily counted from lookouts on Gross Isle). 15,170 Canvasback were counted on January 15th, 21,607 on January 29th, and 14,149 on February 12th. These were the highest count totals since ECFNC started the counts in 2016.
Waterfowl counts in 2023 were held on January 14th (Michigan side only), January 28th, and February 11th. No Canvasbacks were counted on the January 14th count but 3,125 were counted on January 28th and 2,502 on February 11th. Numbers of other species like Common Merganser were also relatively low compared to other years but a count of 2,500 Redhead near Cooper’s Marina on February 11th was a good number for the species.
Although the counts for 2023 did not yield high numbers of Canvasbacks, there were still significant counts within Essex County during the winter period. The most impressive was about 40,000 Canvasback on January 8, 2023, carefully estimated by Michael and Steve McAllister from Brighton Beach Park, a small parkette in Tecumseh that looks out onto Lake St. Clair. This massive raft of Canvasback stayed until at least February 5th when 15,000 birds were still estimated to be present. The only higher counts for our region are a staggering 50,000 birds estimated on January 3rd, 2014, by Karl Overman and James Fox from Lake Erie Metropark, and 49,631 birds on December 28, 2016; meticulously counted by Jerome Jourdan from a video of a massive raft that took flight near Pointe Mouillee State Game Area in Michigan.
The large congregations of wintering Canvasbacks on the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair are a spectacle birders should try to experience in Essex County. There is nothing like seeing a massive raft of this beautiful duck take flight, or watching large flocks in loose “V” formations by the thousands as they fly between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie.