GORE BAY—The 56th Gore Bay Christmas Bird count, the fourth of the pandemic, was held on December 17.
The six field teams came to the end of the Lands’ driveway to pick up their report form packages around 8 am and then set off to find and report all the species and individual birds found within their assigned area of the 24-kilometer diameter count circle.
The weather was more of a challenge than it had been in recent years which, no doubt, impacted the results. When not just overcast, there was rain-lots of it and a cold wind out of the south southwest maintaining a very steady 20 km/h. Over the day, the temperature fell from a morning high of 5 Celsius to just above freezing by the time the last of the field teams reported in.
There was no snow on the ground and only a little in the air. The North Channel was open as was Lake Wolsey and the other lakes and ponds of any size. One cell of the sewage lagoon was completely open though the cell next to it was frozen. The creeks had fast-moving water though the water was low with a significant exposure to the ground along the shores.
Between 3:30 and 4:30 pm, the field teams returned their list of birds and left information on their effort to include in the report to The Audubon Society and Birds Canada. Meanwhile Judy Land was coordinating the calls and emails from the thirty-one feeder watchers. We continue to be indebted to all field team members and the dedicated feeder watchers, without whom we could not accurately undertake the annual count. I was pleased to note that this year we had a new field team member and three new feeder watchers.
photos by Terry Land
From the reports received and tabulated using the revised spreadsheets produced by Bruce Lindsay of Gore Bay, 3907 individual birds of 42 species were observed. Last year, by comparison, there were 4,213 individual birds and 47 species counted. There were also two count week birds, which appeared in the three days before the tally, but were not seen on the count day, a Green-winged Teal, and a Barred Owl.
Late in the afternoon a mystery bird showed up at a feeder. Unfortunately, we have yet to identify that bird sufficiently to satisfy the requirements of a rare bird report. The likely suspect is Townsend’s Solitaire, not unknown on Manitoulin but believed not to have appeared on a count before.
The open waters of the North Channel and Lake Wolsey gave up the many ducks identified which would have been missed if the water were frozen. Of particular note are the large number of Mallards at 256 and Common Mergansers at 508 species each. Returning to the count this year after an absence of several years were 10 Ring-necked Pheasants. The Mourning Doves, at 32 individuals, was an improvement over recent counts. 12 species of birds were represented in the count with five or fewer individuals. Two songbirds, totaling 1,007 individuals were also identified: The American Goldfinch and Pine Siskins.
As compiler of the Bird Count, I wish to thank the field teams and the feeder watchers who do their jobs diligently on this Citizen Science Project year in and year out, often in challenging conditions. Maybe next year more people will be able to take part, learning about the birds and having fun at a stressful time of the year.
Total birds-3,907, total species-42. They included: Canada goose-4, American black duck-8, mallard-256, long-tailed duck -1, buffelehead-1, common goldeneye-122, hooded merganser-23, common merganser508, ring-necked pheasant-10, ruffed grouse-14, horned grebe-1, red-necked grebe-1, bald eagle juvenile-5, bald eagle-adult, rough-legged hawk-3, ring-billed gull-12, herring gull-247, rock pigeon (feral pigeon)-39, mourning dove-32, belted kingfisher-1, rede-bellied woodpecker-9, downy woodpecker-17, hairy woodpecker-18, pileated woodpecker-8, northern shrike-5, blue jay-126, American crow-315, common raven-164, black-capped chickadee-347, red-breasted nuthatch-15, white-breasted nuthatch-29, brown creepeer-1, golden-crowned kinglet-16, European starling-422, Bohemian waxwing-2, snow bunting-20, American tree sparrow-1, dark-eyed junco (slate-colored)-27, northern cardinal-10, house finch-9, pine siskin-353, American goldfinch-684, house sparrow-9.
by Terry Land
