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By Jeremy Hatt

The 2019 Holiday Beach CBC was held on Saturday, December 28th. The count includes Holiday Beach Conservation Area, Big Creek, the lower Detroit River north to LaSalle (Lower Detroit River Important Bird Area), Boblo Island, and surrounding areas.

38 volunteers participated in the count, with 37 people making observations in the field and one person observing feeders. A total of 56.75 party hours were tallied: 28.25 hours by foot, 24 hours by car, 1.5 hours of owling, and 3 hours of feeder watching. A combined total of 359km of distance was travelled for the count by foot and by car. 78 species were recorded and a total of 16,413 birds tallied. This is on par with the number of species and individuals seen for the last few years of the count. No additional species were added during Count Week.

Volunteers counting birds from the old ferry terminal on Boblo Island – photo by Jeremy Hatt

Skies were cloudy in the morning turning to partly sunny in the afternoon. The day was quite comfortable with temperatures ranging from around 1C in the early morning and warming to about 5C in the afternoon. Winds were fairly low out of the east but felt a bit more brisk along the Lake Erie shoreline, especially in the late afternoon. Following several mild days in the area, there was virtually no snow cover on the ground and no ice cover on Lake Erie, along the Detroit River, or in any marsh areas. This was similar to the 2018 count, which had no ice cover as well and was mild.

Joan Affleck and Kory Renaud counting ducks on the open waters of Big Creek – photo by Jeremy Hatt

Similar to previous years, the most abundant bird of the count was Canvasback with 2,326 birds tallied. This was lower than the previous year’s count of 6,000+ (the Lower Detroit River is an Important Bird Area for this species with greater than 1% of the global population overwintering on the river). Other diving ducks were fairly scarce and gull numbers were also down; typical of mild periods when they aren’t concentrated along the river. Similar to other counts in Essex County this year, quite a few passerine species were notably low in number or absent. 

A few highlights from the count included 4 Snow Geese, 1 Trumpeter Swan (new for the count), a good count of 27 American Wigeon in the Holiday Beach marsh, 268 American Black Duck (mostly in the Holiday Beach marsh), 1,167 Redhead along Lake Erie and the Detroit River, 3 separate Double-crested Cormorants along the Detroit River, 1 very late Great Egret in the Holiday Beach marsh (new for the count), 1 Turkey Vulture, 2 Red-shouldered Hawks at Holiday Beach, 2 American Coots within the Holiday Beach marsh, 1 Eastern Phoebe on Boblo Island and 2 at Holiday Beach, 1 Northern Shrike west of Holiday Beach, a good count of 27 Carolina Wrens across the count area, and 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet on Boblo Island in White Sands Conservation Area.

A big thank you to our dedicated Area Leaders, Bob Hall-Brooks, Paul Pratt, Paul Desjardins, Linda Wladarski, and Dave Martin, for helping coordinate another successful CBC and thank you to all the volunteers for helping count. Also a huge thank you to Sarah and Kory Renaud for hosting another excellent roundup with lots of great food.

Area 5 volunteers from left to right: Jeremy Hatt, Kory Renaud, Joan Affleck, Larry Onysko, Paula O’Rourke, Tim Shortridge, Kathy Lesperance, and Dan Loncke – photo by Jeremy Hatt

By Paul Pratt

A Christmas Bird Count is a great way to spend the start of a new year. Michigan’s Detroit River Christmas Bird Count includes a small portion on the Canadian side of the river including the parks that make up the Ojibway Prairie Complex.  On New Year’s Day there were 24 participants covering Ojibway and the river downstream from Lauzon Road to the north end of Fighting Island. 51 species were recorded this year with the highlight being a Baltimore Oriole, only the second record for this count. The very mild weather kept waterfowl away from normal winter concentration sites and very dispersed this year. 

Summary:
Canada Goose 474, Mute Swan 12, Mallard 88, Canvasback 76, Redhead 58, Ring-necked Duck 14, Greater Scaup 29, Bufflehead 9, Common Goldeneye 36, Hooded Merganser 4, Common Merganser 64, Ring-necked Pheasant 1,  Wild Turkey 42, Great Blue Heron 2, Bald Eagle 2, Cooper’s Hawk 4, Red-tailed Hawk 8, Bonaparte’s Gull 15, Ring-billed Gull 190, Herring Gull 23, Great Black-backed Gull 1, Rock Pigeon 826, Mourning Dove 176, Belted Kingfisher 1, Red-bellied Woodpecker 23, Downy Woodpecker 42, Hairy Woodpecker 2, American Kestrel 2, Merlin 1, Peregrine Falcon 3, Blue Jay 111, Black-capped Chickadee 36, Tufted Titmouse 14, White-breasted Nuthatch 46, Brown Creeper 3, Winter Wren 3, Carolina Wren 12, Eastern Bluebird 3, American Robin 6, European Starling 178, American Tree Sparrow 9, Song Sparrow 9, Swamp Sparrow 1, White-throated Sparrow 8, White-crowned Sparrow 5, Dark-eyed Junco 102, Northern Cardinal 142, Baltimore Oriole 1, House Finch 68, American Goldfinch 89, House Sparrow 334.

Participants: Kevin Baker, Michelle Bondy, Pat Bondy, Karen Cedar, Leia Cedar, Paul Desjardins, Susan Ellis, Larry Evon, Wren Evon, Hazel Evon, Violet Evon, Kristen Fawdry, JoAnn Grondin, Shirley Grondin, Claire Kenno, Theresa LaMire, Cathy Lesperance, Carl Maiolani, Claire McAllister, Paula O’Rourke, Paul Pratt, Kory Renaud, Dianne Rodrigues, Jim Rodrigues, Ian Woodfield.

By Jeremy Hatt

On January 12, 2020, Kory Renaud and I led an Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) Outing along the Detroit River and Ojibway Park. The main target of the outing is waterfowl and gulls along the upper Detroit River in the morning and passerines and other resident birds at Ojibway in the afternoon.

Many members of ECFNC were in attendance and the outing included stops at Lakeview Park Marina, Little River Corridor Park (and Little River Pollution Control Plant), the Ambassador Bridge, and Ojibway Park. 19 participants joined for the morning and 14 participants continued on into the afternoon. The day started off cold and cloudy but by late morning and into the afternoon, there were periods of sun making birding quite comfortable. Temperatures ranged from -4C in the morning to -1C in the afternoon with winds out of the northwest. In total, we saw 43 species of birds during the outing.

Mild temperatures leading up to January 12^th meant that the waters of Lake St. Clair remained open, so birds were not as concentrated at the Detroit River mouth as they usually are in winter months when the lake is frozen (the Detroit River mouth stays open year-round and is one of the best places for observing waterfowl during the coldest periods of the winter). We still managed to scrounge up some highlights, however, including a male Wood Duck at Lakeview Park Marina, large rafts of Common Mergansers and Canvasbacks, an adult “Kumlien’s” Iceland Gull, and a handful of Bald Eagles on Peche Island.

Our next stop was Little River Corridor Park south of Lakeview Park Marina. We walked along the Little River Pollution Control Plant as well as the trail system within the park. During colder temperatures when Lake St. Clair freezes up, Little River stays open year-round due to the pollution control plant’s warm water effluent. This makes it a great place to find overwintering waterfowl and herons but because of the mild temperatures prior to the outing, Little River had very view birds except for a few Mallards and Hooded Mergansers. We did get to see a Belted Kingfisher flying along the river, however, and an American Robin hanging out with a group of European Starlings was another highlight.

After lunch, we stopped at the Ambassador Bridge to look for the resident Peregrine Falcons that frequent this area year-round. We were not disappointed. Shortly after arriving, we spotted a falcon perched atop the “R” of the Ambassador Bridge sign on the American side of the bridge followed by another flying to a nearby perch on the bridge with a Rock Pigeon in its talons. This ended up being one of the highlights of the outing since we were able to watch the falcon eating its prey in plain sight. Special thanks to Jeremy Bensette for getting it in his scope so everyone could really enjoy the view including a few curious members of the public who happened to be walking by. 

We then took a quick stop at Sprucewood Avenue west of Ojibway Parkway. This industrial area along the Detroit River can be quite birdy and highlights included a flock of 8 White-crowned Sparrows, a group of Wild Turkeys, and another Peregrine Falcon hunting for pigeons. 

Our last stop was Ojibway Park, a favourite winter location for many local birders. Here we enjoyed plenty of White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, Black-capped Chickadees, and Dark-eyed Juncos at the park’s feeders.