December 22nd, 2014

Fellow ‘OutdoorEdGuy’ Sean, friend Laura, my wife, my daughter, and me, all spent Saturday looking for birds.  It was the 80th annual Kitchener Christmas Bird Count (CBC).  As copied for the Audubon website:

“From December 14 through January 5 tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in an adventure that has become a family tradition among generations. Families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists go out on an annual mission – often before dawn. For over one hundred years, the desire to both make a difference and to experience the beauty of nature has driven dedicated people to leave the comfort of a warm house during the Holiday season.

Each of the citizen scientists who annually braves snow, wind, or rain, to take part in the Christmas Bird Count makes an enormous contribution to conservation. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations – and to help guide conservation action.

From feeder-watchers and field observers to count compilers and regional editors, everyone who takes part in the Christmas Bird Count does it for love of birds and the excitement of friendly competition — and with the knowledge that their efforts are making a difference for science and bird conservation.”

For our birding ‘party’ it was a beautiful day to be outside.  We began before sunrise, and our hooting and whistling managed to entice 2 Eastern Screech Owls to call back.  Throughout the rest of the day we found the usual suspects – hawks, woodpeckers, chickadees, juncos, kinglets, etc.  There weren’t any unusual species that we detected, but there was a VERY unusual species found by another party!

Local bird gurus, Mike and Ken Burrell described their find online:

At 10:40 we had a Eurasian Collared-Dove on private property, behind the Lutheran Church, in Erbsville. The bird was behind the church, on private property, with several MODOs (Mourning Doves), but flew and we have not relocated it.

It is the first record of this species in Waterloo Region.