Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
2024 Belleville CBC
Saturday, December 28th
The weather for 22nd Belleville CBC started with overcast conditions and light rain, +2 Celsius and icy roads, eventually staying mostly overcast with fog and warming to +7 Celsius. Below freezing temperatures prior to Count Week caused the Bay of Quinte to almost entirely freeze over (the opposite of the previous year, when the Bay remained open), forcing many Waterfowl into open areas of the Moira River, or opting to fly outside the Belleville Count Circle into Lake Ontario.
Twenty-five participants covered 10 areas within the Belleville CBC Circle, in addition to about 5 feeder watchers. They saw 59 species on count day (Average 53) with one additional Count Week species being Northern Harrier. A total of 9301 individuals (average 7103) were tallied.
One new species, Sandhill Crane, was added to the cumulative Belleville CBC list, now at 109 species. A countable unspecified Meadowlark species was also added.
Uncommon Species seen on Count Day: Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Hermit Thrush, Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird and 2 Grackles. Owls on Count Day included 4 Great horned owls, 1 Screech owl and 3 Barred owls.
Notable missed species on count day: Harrier, Rough-legged hawk, Snowy Owl, Peregrine falcon, Red-breasted nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Brown Creeper, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Purple Finch and all “winter” finches.
Notable highs: Cooper’s hawk 8 (previous 8 – tied), Sandhill Cranes 4 (first for Belleville CBC), Red-bellied Woodpecker 19 (previous 9), Merlin 9 (previous 4), Horned Lark 43 (previous 21), Winter Wren 2 (previous 2 – tied), Song Sparrow 8 (previous 8 – tied) and a Northern Mockingbird was seen for only the second time.
Notable Species numbers: 1392 Mourning Doves (ave. 634, record 1481), 25 Eastern Bluebirds (ave. 12), 815 Robins (ave. 270), 358 Snow Buntings (ave. 139), 481 Dark-eyed Juncos (ave. 262), 104 Cardinals (ave. 45) (record 120, in 2022) and 21 Wild Turkey (ave. 39). Most of our commonly occurring Waterfowl species had low counts due to the lack of open water on the Bay, except Canada Geese, with an above average count of 1826 (ave. 1165)
Thanks again to everyone who took part.
Tom Wheatley (Compiler)
Quick recap of the December 14, 2024 Prince Edward Point Christmas Bird Count (CBC)
Twenty-six enthusiastic citizen scientists headed out early on December 14th for the forty-eighth Prince Edward Point Christmas Bird Count. The count circle is centred on Waupoos Island in Prince Edward Bay and extends along the water from Point Traverse of the Prince Edward National Wildlife Area to across the Bay of Quinte near Adolphustown.
The weather was good, with an early morning temperature of -7C, warming to near -1C by afternoon and only light winds. There was little snow cover or ice on the lakes and ponds.
The count of 74 species was above the all-time average of 68. However, only 8,796 birds were counted, well below the average of 30,589. Over the past several years, a trend has been noticed in the declining number of common water birds like Long-tailed Ducks (1,243) and Greater Scaup (207). These birds contributed to this low tally, as they were starkly lower than their respective averages of 17,760 and 2,813. Bird counts at feeders helped to push the species count higher.
A good red cedar berry crop resulted in good numbers of Cedar Waxwings (202) and a record number of American Robins (613). One Barred Owl, one Great-horned Owl and one Snowy Owl were seen on count day. A Northern Goshawk that has been dining on feeder birds was also counted. Historically, this species is only seen once every four or five years. Another unusual species was a flock of Rusty Blackbirds, also seen at the National Wildlife Area.
The tally for Blue Jays, Common Ravens, and Slate-coloured Juncos was well above the 48-year average. The woodpecker family was well represented with 19 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, 25 Downy Woodpeckers, 14 hairy Woodpeckers, 8 Northern Flickers, and one Pileated Woodpecker!
Thanks to all the volunteers, especially the team leaders Paul Mackenzie, Barry Pinsky, Amy Bodman, Ketha Gillespie, Les Stanfield, Tom Wheatley, Joanne Dewey, Tyler Hoar and feeder watcher Pamela Stagg.
Dale Smith (Compiler)