Hamilton's bird count this year declined 30 per cent compared to the 10-year average, but the surprise sighting of a small songbird delighted local birdwatchers during the annual Boxing Day survey.
Dozens of volunteers took part in the long-standing event on Dec. 26 on a balmy Boxing Day and counted 43,439 birds. The final count is 30 per cent lower than the 10-year average of 64,741.
According to the Hamilton Naturalists' Club, which organizes the annual outing, this year's figure appears to be relatively low, but it's not the lowest the birdwatchers have counted.
"We've had bird counts in the 30,000s in the past, but certainly it's not what we expected on a nice day," said Tom Thomas, a compiler with the club who has been counting birds for more than a decade.
"Everybody was reporting that they weren't seeing the number of birds they normally counted for the areas. We went into spots where we expected to see birds and didn't see any."
To find clues to the decline and put this year's number into context, the group will submit the data to the National Audubon Society, a conservation organization that collects bird count data from more than 2,400 locations across the western hemisphere, for analysis.
The data collected by the vast network of local volunteers — from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., to Pacific Grove, Calif., — help scientists study the long-term health and status of the bird populations, the NAS said on its website.
Despite the low count this year, birdwatchers were treated to a surprise sighting of a palm warbler, which is typically in South America by this time of the year.
The reason for the songbird's unusual presence is unclear, Thomas said.
"Sometimes birds get disoriented. Sometimes they've hit a building and maybe their brain is slightly damaged," he said.
The sighting of the palm warbler brought the total number of species seen during the bird count since records began to 199.
This year, 99 species of birds were counted. The 10-year average is 101.
The birdwatchers also reported seeing 15 bald eagles, but the same birds may have been spotted in different count areas and counted twice, Thomas said.
"We know that four were seen in the air at one time by one group of counters," he said.
Other highlights from this year's survey include:
Record counts for the following species (old records in brackets):
- Turkey vulture: 2 (1).
- Black scoter: 87 (30).
- American coot: 186 (167).
Above-average counts for the following species (10-year average in brackets):
- Common loon: 5 (3).
- American wigeon: 2 (1).
- Northern shoveler: 227 (89).
- Green-winged teal: 27 (20).
- Hooded merganser: 139 (71).
- Northern harrier: 4 (2).
- Wild turkey: 76 (48).
- Ring-billed gull: 1876 (1533).
- Herring gull: 2266 (1592).
- Glaucous gull: 14 (12).
- Great black-backed gull: 343 (114).
- Belted kingfisher: 8 (6).
- Red-bellied woodpecker: 78 (50).
- Hairy woodpecker: 88 (73).
- Common raven: 2 (1).
- White-breasted nuthatch: 241 (208).
- Golden-crowned kinglet: 49 (41).
- Yellow-rumped warbler: 3 (2).
- Swamp sparrow: 6 (5).
Other interesting sightings:
- Eastern towhee.
- Yellow-bellied sapsucker.
- Eastern phoebe.
The annual Christmas bird count, which began in New York City in 1900, takes place in so-called count circles on one day between Dec. 14th and Jan. 5th.
Hamilton's first bird count started in 1921 and usually takes place on Boxing Day. This year's count circle covers an area that's about 12 kilometres within Dundurn Castle.
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