I wanted to thank each of you for donating your time to help with the Saugeen Shores Christmas Bird Count. We had a total of 53 species. This is comparable to two previous years and up only slightly above our average. There were several count week species - a White-crowned Sparrow, American Kestrel and Cedar Waxwings.
Ice along the Lake Huron shoreline and frozen inland waters reduced the possibility of seeing waterbirds. This can be evidenced by the lack of Redheads and Canada Goose. There was an abundance of Snowy Owls and the 19 owls seen this year easily surpassed the previous high of 15. Other new highs were Blue Jay at 206 (118), Yellow-rumped Warbler at 3 (1), Dark-eyed Junco at 182 (114) and American Robin at 50 (6). New lows included Snow Bunting at 326 (in 2010 there were 373 but our 10 year average is around 1700), House Sparrow at 38 (48), Black-capped Chickadee at 200 (not a new low but our average is 345) and Herring Gull 57 (not a new low but our average is 948).
Complete List Of Birds
American Black Duck 3 20/112 7
Mallard 93 93/114 10
Lesser Scaup 1 2/112 3
White-winged Scoter 1 4/112 2
Long-tailed Duck 2 9/111 6
Bufflehead 15 62/108 10
Common Goldeneye 64 259/113 10
Common Merganser 13 159/112 10
Red-breasted Merganser 5 36/10
Ruffed Grouse 1 9/113 9
Wild Turkey 107 343/108 10
Common Loon 1 3/107 4
Bald Eagle Adults: 7 Immatures: 5 Unknowns:
Northern Harrier 1 24/107 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 3/114 7
Cooper's Hawk 2 6/109 9
Red-tailed Hawk 18 47/109 10
Rough-legged Hawk 4 45/107 9
American Kestrel cw 16/112 10
Ring-billed Gull 3 367/107 7
Herring Gull 57 4286/107 10
Rock Pigeon 137 477/106 10
Mourning Dove 155 266/106 10
Eastern Screech-Owl 1 4/106 3
Great Horned Owl 1 2/109 7
Snowy Owl 19 19/114 7
Red-bellied Woodpecker 14 15/111 10
Downy Woodpecker 31 38/112 10
Hairy Woodpecker 30 32/109 10
Northern (Yellow- shafted) Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker 1 8/109 10
Northern Shrike 5 15/109 10
Blue Jay 206 206/114 10
American Crow 422 781/113 10
Common Raven 6 72/112 9
Horned Lark 3 5/111 3
Black-capped Chickadee 200 492/106 10
Red-breasted Nuthatch 19 37/109 10
White-breasted Nuthatch 7 56/106 10
Brown Creeper 1 6/112 6
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 14/112 9
Hermit Thrush 1 US, 1/114 1
American Robin 50 50/114 5
European Starling 456 3182/106 10
Cedar Waxwing cw 114/112 7
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3 3/114 2
American Tree Sparrow 72 72/114 10
Song Sparrow 5 5/114 4
White-crowned Sparrow 1 US, 1/114 1
Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco182 182/114 9
Snow Bunting 326 4090/107 9
Northern Cardinal 30 51/110 10