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December 30, 2010

Christmas Bird Count Results 2010

The 37th Algonquin Park Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was held on Thursday, 30 December 2010. Conditions for birding were excellent all day: mostly calm, mainly overcast, relatively mild temperatures (minus 12 to minus 1 degrees C.), and no drizzle until about 4:30 pm. All still water was frozen but there was some open water on the Madawaska River.

As expected in this unusual second successive winter with very poor to non-existent cone crops in Algonquin, bird numbers were low. However, the number of species observed was notably higher than last year's 23 species.

Learn more about tree cone crops and Algonquin's winter birds.

Overall Results

Total Observers: 63
Birds per Party Hour: 8.6 (compared to 4 last year)
Total Species: 31 (average is 28; highest ever is 34)
Total Individuals: 1,892 (average is 4,862)

Noteworthy Species:

American Black Duck: 1 (flying over the Madawaska River near Pog Lake Campground)
Bald Eagle: 2
Wild Turkey: 6 (new high count; previous was 3)
American Crow: 2
Bohemian Waxwing: 3 (new high count; previous was 1)

Finches:

Pine Grosbeak: 6
Red Crossbill: 20 (feeding on white pine)
White-winged Crossbill: 244 (feeding on Eastern hemlock and black spruce; unexpectedly high number since relatively few were reported before the count)
Common Redpoll: 115
Hoary Redpoll: 1 (only 4th time on count)
Pine Siskin: 1
American Goldfinch: 5
Evening Grosbeak: none

A big thanks to all those who participated in the count and especially to those who facilitated the electronic tally, gave short illustrated talks after the tally, assisted with the catered dinner, and made payment by credit card possible (a first on any Ontario CBC?).

Ron Tozer
Algonquin Park CBC Compiler

What is the Christmas Bird Count?

The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a long-standing program of the National Audubon Society, with over 100 years of citizen science involvement. It is an early-winter bird census, where thousands of volunteers across the US, Canada and many countries in the Western Hemisphere, go out over a 24 hour period to count birds.

How is the Christmas Bird Count conducted?

Count volunteers follow specified routes through a designated 24-km diameter circle, counting every bird they see or hear all day. It’s not just a species tally—all birds are counted all day, giving an indication of the total number of birds in the circle that day. If observers live within a CBC circle, they may arrange in advance to count the birds at their feeders and submit those data to their compiler. All individual CBC’s are conducted in the period from December 14 to January 5 (inclusive dates) each season, and each count is conducted in one calendar day.

Why was the Christmas Bird Count started?

The first CBC was done on Christmas Day of 1900 as an alternative activity to an event called the “side hunt” where people chose sides, then went out and shot as many birds as they could. The group that came in with the largest number of dead birds won the event. Frank Chapman, a famed ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History and the editor of Bird-Lore (which became the publication of the National Association of Audubon Societies when that organization formed in 1905) recognized that declining bird populations could not withstand wanton over-hunting, and proposed to count birds on Christmas Day rather than shoot them.

Is the Christmas Bird Count useful?

Absolutely. The data collected by observers over the past century allow researchers, conservation biologists, and interested individuals to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America.