By Jeremy Hatt

Since 2015, birders in Essex County have kept a list of all the species found in our area during the month of February, a challenge we call the “Depths of Winter”. It is conducted each year on WEPBirds, an online forum created by ECFNC Vice President Kory Renaud for reporting and discussing bird sightings in the Windsor, Essex, and Pelee areas. WEPBirds is open to all levels of birding expertise and interest. Visit www.wepbirds.com to learn more. Each year the Depths of Winter list is tallied from reports to WEPBirds, eBird, and other birding listservs.

2020 and 2021 were the sixth and seventh years birders have taken part in the Depths of Winter challenge. The total number of species tallied in 2020 was 95. The only new addition last year to the all-time list was Gyrfalcon. This was the second lowest count since the challenge began. 2019 saw the lowest number of species at 83, which isn’t surprising considering it was an exceptionally cold winter with a higher amount of ice cover than other recent years.

Despite not publicizing the challenge this year due to the pandemic, in 2021 birders broke the previous record high of 116 species set in 2017 by 2 birds. The record high for the number of species seen during February now stands at 118 species. Since it has been a mild winter, several species that would normally have moved out of the area due to ice cover were able to overwinter. It was also an irruption year for winter finches and quite a few early spring migrants also showed up at the end of February with the onset of warmer weather.

Highlights this year included Greater White-fronted Goose, Long-tailed Duck, King Eider, Double-crested Cormorant, Virginia Rail, Gyrfalcon, Common Redpoll, Savannah Sparrow, and five new additions to the Depths of Winter list: Black Scoter, Bonaparte’s Gull, Great Egret, Varied Thrush, and Hoary Redpoll. Gyrfalcon, Hoary Redpoll, and Varied Thrush were new species for many birders’ Essex County lists.

Notable misses this year included Snow Goose, Ross’s Goose, Horned Grebe, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Red-headed Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Marsh Wren, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Since its inception in 2015, the Depths of Winter list now stands at a total of 139 species. A complete list of species seen during the Depths of Winter challenge from 2015 to 2021 can be found at http://www.wepbirds.com/depths-of-winter—february-sightings.