[Ontbirds]Bradford-West Gwillimbury Christmas Bird Count

[Peter Wukasch]

December 29 was a blustery day for our bird count and the low numbers reflect that. most of the inshore water of Lake Simcoe was frozen so waterfowl numbers were very low and we were not able to find any Canada Geese! No new species were added to the cumulative list but there were some notable highlights. For the first time, each team recorded Bohemian Waxwings ( 72 in all), Surprisingly, since many small flocks were evident during the count week, only 30 Pine Grosbeaks were seen. Other notable finds are listed below.
 Common Redpoll - one team had a flock of 200
 Red-bellied Woodpecker - one seen of a species that     seems to be showing up annually now
 Brown-headed Cowbird - 2nd record
 Merlin -1
 -generally raptor numbers were down significantly
 - a total of  39 species were seen with a total of 2510  individuals. Thanks to all who "beat the bushes" for the count. One notable highlight was a close encounter with a young opossum who ventured to a feeder in broad daylight while we were counting no more that 3 meters away! 
Peter Wukasch