2012 Northumberland Summer Bird Count

Nature Notes for June 22, 2012

Early in the morning of June 9, if you were travelling on the small side roads north of Cty. Rd. 22 between Centreton and Castleton, you would have seen a rather damp person driving very slowly in the pouring rain with the car window open. That person was me, participating in the 2012 Northumberland Summer Bird Count, the 16^th annual count.

For the third year in a row, it rained on one of the two days over which this count is held. With the possible exception of American Robins, birds do not sing as much when it rains. It is also very difficult to hear them because of the rain. Optical gear (and eyeglasses) fog up and become rain spattered, so birds are difficult to see.

However, it didn’t rain all weekend. The rain had stopped by about 10 a.m. on the first day and the Sunday was cloudless and quite hot.

A total of 30 observers covered the area between Rice Lake and Hwy. 401 at Grafton and Harwood Rd. to Lone Pine Marsh by car, foot and canoe. No one travelled by bicycle, as a couple of people did last year.

When all reports were tallied at the end of the weekend, 18,036 individuals of 143 species had been detected.

One new species was found this year, a Northern Parula (a warbler) in a swampy woodland southeast of Alderville.

Several species which have only been encountered irregularly were:

•Black-crowned Night Heron (second record ever)

•Bald Eagle (fourth record)

•Hooded Warbler (2 birds)

•Pine Siskin (second record ever)

Thirty-three species were found in record high numbers. Many of these high counts were for common roadside birds which could be easily counted in the rain. Some of these species were:

Canada Goose (604), Wild Turkey (100), Ring-billed Gull (2105), Mourning Dove (610), American Robin (1239), Red-winged Blackbird (1466), and Common Grackle (986).

Species encountered in lower than usual numbers included:

Red-tailed Hawk (16), Rock Pigeon (59), Nashville Warbler (8), Grasshopper Sparrow (54), and Brown-headed Cowbird (87).

Breeding hawks are very secretive so they are seldom found in large numbers, but eleven species were found. This represents all of the known breeding species of raptors in this area. Three of these species were found in record high numbers: Northern Goshawk (5), Broad-winged Hawk (11) and Merlin (2).

All species of woodpeckers were found in record high or near record high numbers. Three Red-headed Woodpeckers were found. This species is listed as “threatened” in Ontario. Red-bellied Woodpeckers continue to increase in numbers, with a total of 9 counted. This species’ range has expanded north from the U.S. and it is now a regular bird in Northumberland County.

The Northumberland Summer Bird Count is organized by Willow Beach Field Naturalists. A complete list of birds seen can be found on their web site: www.willowbeachfieldnaturalists.org