Another Christmas bird count is in the books.
It’s a tradition that dates back 62 years here in the Sault and is part of an international effort in North America.
Dave Euler along with Carter Dorscht helped organize the local count which Euler says this year involved over 50 participants from December 15th to January 1st.
The number of birds counted was over 61-hundred with 59 different species spotted including for the first time the lesser black-backed gull.
That’s similar to the 10-year average of 60 species counted—the all time high is 71.
Euler talks about some other results…

Euler says the local data will now be forwarded to be analysed as part of a North American wide effort…

There were some rare birds spotted in the annual Christmas bird count in Desbarats.
The rarest bird spotted according to organizer Carter Dorscht was the Varied Thrush which is a bird more commonly found in BC.
Others of note, were the Horned Lark and the Red Winged blackbird which is more commonly found in southern Ontario.
This year there were 17 bird watchers that participated and the number of birds overall spotted and the total species count was similar to past years.
40 different bird species were spotted out of the over 22-hundred birds observed.

 

 

Desbarats Bird Count Results (Supplied by the Kensington Conservancy…