Blog  January 10, 2012

Christmas Bird Count at EBW

Volunteers look to the skies for birds at EBW (Photo: Stuart McPherson)

By Stuart McPherson, Stewardship Coordinator, Evergreen Brick Works

On December 18, we added another (century old!) first to a year of firsts by joining in the 111-year-old tradition of the Christmas Bird Count.

The Christmas Bird Count dates back to 1900, but the history that links people, birds and Christmas goes back even further. Throughout the 19th century, the “Christmas Side Hunt” was a popular holiday outing which saw people head out, enjoy nature, and kill as many birds as possible on Christmas Day.

In 1900, American ornithologist Frank Chapman suggested the novel alternative to hunting the birds—counting! While not immediately popular (the 1900 Christmas Bird Census had 27 participants in 25 locations from Canada and the United States), each year the number of participants and locations increased. In 2000, over 52,000 counters participated in more than 1,800 locations. Evergreen Brick Works and a team of five volunteers joined the efforts for 2011 to record bird activity around the site and in the Weston Family Quarry Garden Park.

Volunteers learn from naturalist Ian Shanahan about the winter habits of birds
(Photo: Stuart McPherson)

In Canada, the count is organized by Bird Studies Canada and our team was one of many that took on the challenge of covering the City of Toronto.

So what did we see? Not as much as we hoped—13 species and 106 individuals—but it was rather cold. Here’s the complete tally:

27 – Canada Geese
1 – Red-tailed Hawk
13 – Gulls
1 – American Crow
4 – Black-capped Chickadees
1 – Red-breasted Nuthatch
14 – American Robins
1 – Northern Cardinal
7 – American Tree Sparrows
1 – Dark-Eyed Junco
1 – Purple Finch
10 – American Gold Finch
25 – House Sparrows

You can start preparing for next year's count by attending the winter Bird Monitoring Workshop on January 21 from 9:30–10:30am. It’s free for everyone—just be sure to dress for the weather. For details or to sign up, contact Stuart McPherson at smcpherson@evergreen.ca.