The Egret Article

By Jeremy Hatt 

On January 11, 2025, eleven birders enjoyed near perfect conditions for the Winter Birds of the Detroit River Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) outing. This is an annual hike held around the same time each year and is open to ECFNC members. The aim of the hike is to showcase waterfowl, gulls, and other winter birds that rely on the open waters of the Detroit River as well as two of Windsor’s major city parks, Little River Corridor and Ojibway Park. 

Subzero temperatures left Lake St. Clair completely frozen, which concentrated many waterfowl at the Detroit River mouth at Lakeview Park Marina where the outing started. Large numbers of Canada Goose, Canvasback, and Greater Scaup were present along w/ several Mallard, American Black Duck, Redhead, Common Goldeneye, and Common and Hooded Mergansers. Two Ring-necked Ducks and singles of Lesser Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser, and Ruddy Duck were also present. Gulls were unfortunately low in number but a Trumpeter Swan, two Wood Ducks, and 36 Great Blue Herons roosting together on the ice were additional highlights. 

After Lakeview Park Marina we left for the Little River Pollution Control Plant and Little River Corridor to look for more waterfowl and search for passerines. Surprisingly four more Wood Ducks were present on the open waters of Little River w/ hundreds of Mallards. A Belted Kingfisher called noisily along Little River, one of the reliable spots in the county to find this species overwintering. Here we also picked up a few American Robins, a Hermit Thrush, flyover Snow Buntings, several White-throated Sparrows, and another highlight of the day, an “Oregon” Dark-eyed Junco. A perched Cooper’s Hawk gave everyone great scope views. 

After lunch we visited St. Rose Beach along the Detroit River where 1,400 Canvasback and 500 Redhead were present along w/ a good assortment of expected wintering waterfowl, and another highlight of the day, six Long-tailed Ducks; a good count for the Detroit River at any time of year. Our next stop was the Ambassador Bridge for Peregrine Falcon but for the first time on this outing, this essentially 100% guaranteed species wasn’t found despite a lengthy search! 

We finished the day w/ a walk through Ojibway Park enjoying close looks at regulars like Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Tufted Titmouse. Five Fox Sparrows was a great count for the winter and a Golden-crowned Kinglet offered close views. Our final highlight was a resting grey morph Eastern Screech-Owl that gave everyone a good opportunity for photos. 

In total we ended up w/ 52 species and 6,318 individual birds. Our eBird trip report can be found at https://ebird.org/tripreport/319121.

By Jeremy Hatt

The 2024 Holiday Beach CBC took place on Saturday, December 28^th. The count includes Holiday Beach Conservation Area, Big Creek, the Lower Detroit River north to LaSalle (Lower Detroit River IBA), Boblo Island and surrounding areas. Boblo Island continues to be inaccessible due to construction on the island but the rest of the count circle received great coverage. 26 participants volunteered for the count, tallying a whopping 93 species and 48,107 individual birds. This species count beats the previous record of 88 set in 2023 and was the highest species count of all the CBC’s in Essex County this winter!

Volunteers experienced unseasonably warm weather w/ temperatures ranging from 9C in the morning to 13C in the afternoon. The sky was sunny all day and winds were a moderate 20-27km/h SW. By mid-afternoon, one could comfortably wear just a sweatshirt or light jacket. Lake Erie, the Detroit River, and inland waters were all open, which resulted in a good diversity of waterfowl. Significant counts of several dabbling ducks were made and southwest winds encouraged a good movement of waterfowl on Lake Erie as well.

The best bird of the count was a long overdue species add for the Holiday Beach CBC, a lone White-winged Scoter flying west past the Delta Trail (spotted by Michael McAllister w/ Cameron Chevalier and Harrison Priebe and subsequently seen flying past Holiday Beach by Jacob Stasso).

A stunning number of record high counts were set this year:

Cackling Goose – 19 (previous high of 8)
Trumpeter Swan – 4 (previous high of 1)
Tundra Swan – 1,505 (previous high of 1,438)
American Wigeon – 42 (previous high of 35)
American Black Duck – 718 (previous high of 364)
Northern Pintail – 34 (previous high of 18)
Bufflehead – 286 (previous high of 183)
Hooded Merganser – 86 (previous high of 33)
Red-breasted Merganser – 1,446 (previous high of 1,003)
Eastern Screech-Owl – 7 (previous high of 6)
Peregrine Falcon – 3 (previous high of 2)
White-throated Sparrow – 349 (previous high of 124)
Common Grackle – 441 (previous high of 376)
Purple Finch – 16 (previous high of 2)

Other notable sightings included:

Wood Duck – 2 (often missed on this count)
Green-winged Teal – 1 (seen on only one previous count)
Northern Shoveler – 23 (often missed on this count)
Canvasback – 28,394 (second-highest count behind 40,501)
Iceland Gull – 1 (seen on only one previous count)
Lesser Black-backed Gull – 1 (seen on three previous counts)
Northern Mockingbird – 1 (seen on three previous counts)
Killdeer – 1 (seen on two previous counts)
Sandhill Crane – 7 (seen on three previous counts)
Northern Saw-Whet Owl – 1 (seen on three previous counts)
Belted Kingfisher – 1 (often missed on this count)
Lapland Longspur – 5 (seen on two previous counts)
Eastern Towhee – 1 (often missed on this count)

Notable misses this year include Snow Goose (seen the previous four years of the count), Double-crested Cormorant (often at least one found on the Detroit River), Rough-legged Hawk, American Coot (sometimes found in the Holiday Beach marsh), Short-eared Owl (abundant in the county this winter), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (several wintering this year), Eastern Phoebe, Northern Shrike, Marsh Wren, American Pipit (many persisting into the winter this year), Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, and Pine Siskin.

The Holiday Beach CBC also got some local media attention. Jeremy Hatt and Kory Renaud were interviewed at the Big Creek Conservation Area during the count and an article appeared in the Windsor Star covering some highlights of the CBC. The article can be read here: https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/mild-winter-brings-high-windsor-essex-christmas-bird-count

Many thanks to all the Area Leaders and dedicated volunteers for their efforts, and to Kory and Sarah Renaud for hosting another great roundup and serving a much welcomed hot meal at the end of the day! Everyone really stepped up this year and helped make it a fantastic count.

Jeremy Hatt & Kory Renaud

By: Jeremy Hatt

The first ever Comber CBC took place on December 22^nd, 2024, w/ 16 keen and enthusiastic volunteers. A total of 22.75km were walked for 10 hours and 583km driven for 32.75 hours and one hour was spent owling.

The Count was one of the coldest days of the winter period in 2024 for the region w/ temperatures ranging from -6C in the morning to -1C by the afternoon. Sunny skies and a light south wind helped make the day comfortable for birding. Most inland water and about 500m of the edge of Lake St. Clair were completely frozen.

The Comber CBC circle spans across Essex and Chatham-Kent Counties and includes several birding hotspots including Ruscom Shores Conservation Area, The Trans Canada Trail from Staples to Comber, Big ‘O’ Conservation Area, Comber Sewage Lagoons, Rowsom’s Tilbury West Conservation Area, Tremblay Beach Conservation Area, Stoney Point Sewage Lagoons, Tilbury Sewage Lagoons, Northside Park, and several parkettes along the Lake St. Clair shoreline.

By the end of the count, a total of 76 species and 26,812 individuals were counted.

The best bird of the Count was a male Yellow-headed Blackbird found by Paul Pratt and Paula O’Rourke at the Comber Agris Co-op. Other highlights included 1 Wood Duck, 2 Glaucous Gulls, 1 Iceland Gull, 1 Snowy Owl, 11 Short-eared Owls, 1 Northern Shrike, 2 Common Ravens, 1 American Pipit, 2 Fox Sparrows, and 1 Eastern Towhee. The Northern Shrike was flushed by Jacob Stasso on his way to the roundup showing that it’s never too late to add a species to the Count! At least three separate areas had Short-eared Owls active at dusk.

Notable counts included 1,064 Tundra Swans, 1,418 Sandhill Cranes (on the move after a significant drop in temperature across the province), 537 American Herring Gulls, 27 Northern Harriers, 1,728 House Sparrows, 8,997 Snow Buntings, 331 American Tree Sparrows, 16 White-crowned Sparrows, and 983 Dark-eyed Juncos.

Birds seemed to be scarce in forested areas but passerines were concentrated in higher numbers along creek edges, tree lines, and weedy fields; particularly sparrows. Winter finches were very low in number overall but other winter specialties like Snow Bunting were easily found throughout the Circle. Rafts of ducks reaching the thousands can often be found on the east end of Lake St. Clair but the freeze up made it more difficult to get high numbers of waterfowl and dabbling ducks were especially absent due to frozen inland waters. Raptors were easily found throughout the Count Circle and four species of owls were tallied.

Notable misses included Redhead, Bufflehead, Wilson’s Snipe, Bonaparte’s Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Red-shouldered Hawk, Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Marsh Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Purple Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Yellowthroat, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

A casual roundup was held at the A&W in Comber to tally species totals and individual counts.

Next year’s CBC will be held on December 21^st.