The 2023 Christmas Bird Count PLUS the 2023 Garden Bird List
A short, bonus mid-week article, to get the new year under way.
(1) The 2023 CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT
There were two CBCs (nothing to do with our national broadcaster) in December. One centred on Montreal and on the 30 December, another in Hudson and the surrounding area. The Christmas Bird Count has been running annually since 1900 and is North America’s longest-running Citizen Science project. The information collected by thousands of CBC volunteer participants all over the continent forms one of the world’s largest sets of wildlife census data. The results are used by conservation biologists, environmental planners, and naturalists to assess the population trends and changing distribution of birds over the years. The CBC in each Count Circle is planned and organized by a Compiler, often supported by a birding club or naturalist organization. Here they are run by the good people of Bird Protection Quebec. Briefly - birders attempt to identify and count every single bird within a standard 15 mile/24km diameter circle. That is a big area and takes a lot of volunteers.
J and I participated again in the Hudson CBC where we have run the same route for 20+ years - so we know it well. Hudson is just west of Montreal Island and about 20 minutes (EV, so green) drive from our home base. Not “green birding” but essential citizen science. At the time of writing the full details of birds seen during the day by the many other teams in the Hudson CBC has not been fully compiled. I will summarize the highlights when I can. Perhaps next year you will want to help with the CBC near your home if I make the account interesting enough, once the details are released by the compiler?
Our route covers a lot of very open and exposed flat agricultural land as well as some residential streets. The birding was hardish going with a respectable total of 21 species, but down on the number of individual birds other than Pigeons … and probably Turkeys. Two large flocks of Turkeys south of the 40 near the Hudson Inn on opposite sides of the 201 and then as were leaving the area a third group beside the 40 … though outside the official count circle. No Starlings, no SNOWs but a very good (soul-satisfying as an old birding friend says) close meeting with a Shrike. Second year running that we have seen a few unexpected Bluebirds, this time travelling with a couple of Cedar Waxwings. Not many photographs other than this nice Merlin who posed generously.
(2) 2023 GARDEN BIRD LIST
Naturally, we keep an annual garden bird list which after checking between our personal records and cross-correlating and generally managing (but not massaging) the notes we have determined that during 2023 we saw 72 different species of birds at some time - either in or just occasionally flying over the garden.
Not too shabby for a modest suburban plot west of Montreal. If you are interested to know what the species were you can download a PDF from the link that follows. The species are listed in taxonomic sequence, not alphabetically.
** For the record, the garden life list (25 years) still stands at 120 species.
Meanwhile - where has winter got to?
Green/brown Christmases are not entirely unknown in the Montreal region but they are pretty uncommon. This year so far has been truly strange - yes we had a snow dump in December but that didn’t last long at all while the holiday week itself was more like November weather with many days being above freezing point and the water in the garden pond and the river sloshing about in the breeze. Soon the temperatures should start to fall to more seasonal levels - I do hope we get a decent snow cover because sudden cold is not going to do the plants much good at all without an insulating layer. The first photo below is the St-Lawrence river just down the road on New Year’s Eve 2023 - the second picture was taken from the same location on the same day but ten years ago. Climate changes under our noses.
In January there isn’t a whole lot of exciting wildlife to get to grips with excepting for birds. Trees, perhaps, if you want to sharpen your skills at identifying them from their bark, though they will be waiting for you when spring warmth comes. Lichens are good because without the leaves on trees they are fairly easy to see … and fascinating they are. I think though, we can stick with birds as there are so many that stick around during the winter. Not every bird, by a long way, migrates. Here’s one that you stand a chance of seeing, quite a fair chance if there is some wooded or hilly land nearby.
The Common Raven (Corvus corax).
It has been said that when Europeans first came to North America and started to chop down the forests, the dominant Corvid species was the Common Raven while Crows were more limited in territory to open spaces and forest edges along streams and lakes. Quite the opposite these days, but Ravens are here and thank goodness they are. Our nearby arboretum hosts a small number who can be seen soaring above the tree tops and giving out their characteristic ‘croak’ calls. In the past three or four years Ravens, well one pair anyway, have nested in tall mature trees just a couple of streets away from us and they certainly nest on the iron superstructure of a railway bridge crossing the river from Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue at the western tip of Montreal Island. Nests may be several feet across and built from sticks they have collected. For their size they are usually well hidden and hard to see on the top of tall trees with dense foliage.
Unless seen side by side it may not be easy to tell a Raven from a Crow - unless they “speak”, that is. The Raven though is bigger and heavier than the Crow, has a ruff of feathers at the neck and its beak is altogether more striking and heavy. In flight, it is easier sometimes to tell them apart - look at the tail, the hand of the crow’s tail is more or less squared off while the Raven’s tail is shaped like a wedge or an arrow head with longer feathers in the centre, the Crow’s tail feathers being all the same length. The other flight feature is that the Crow will flap its wings as it passes while the Raven makes use of thermals and its larger wing span and often soars or glides without the need to flap so much.
Ravens are one of the most intelligent of birds and this ability of “think” makes them very efficient predators. They often work collaboratively in finding food - for example one bird may distract an incubating adult while the other takes the opportunity to take an egg or chick from a nest. A study in Wyoming found that during hunting season, the sound of a gunshot draws ravens in to investigate a presumed carcass, whereas the birds ignore sounds that are just as loud but harmless, such as an airhorn or a car door slamming. They will also play with siblings as they ride the air and soar together.
A bird to make a point of looking out for in winter - don’t assume that every black bird is a Crow.
2024
Pleasingly, the 1001 Species newsletter has now entered year two of its short life with a gratifyingly growing number of subscribers - if you are not yet a subscriber, please consider becoming one. It’s free, just a click away. The newsletter will continue to be published each Sunday, with occasional mid-week bonuses when I get especially excited about something. Wildlife, especially urban wildlife, and wildlife gardening are the major themes - observation, information and sometimes “wow - look-at-thisism”. I strive to make posts interesting and relevant … at least, for those who think these topics are interesting in the first place 😉
Out of curiosity, I outsourced some of the planning for the year ahead and asked the internet to create a brief 2024 independent publishing plan for me. The AI gnomes cogitated away for at least a second and then suggested … "Explore the wonders of nature with our weekly newsletter. Enjoy wildlife secrets, gardening tips for a thriving ecosystem, and stay connected to the beauty of the natural world every week." That’ll do quite nicely, apart from a couple of superfluously gnomic exclamation marks, now duly excised.
That’s more than enough waffling … just a final word
It pains me to see people passing by and “not seeing” common birds (or flowers, or insects) but getting terribly excited - not unreasonably - at rarities. It’s a shame. I enjoy interacting with common species quite as much as rarities - sometimes more so, and I am not alone in thinking that knowing the common, local species around our homes is probably more important than ticking off rare vagrants. This thinking was well expressed in the following comment taken from “The Stubborn light of Things” by Melissa Harrison (Faber, 2021):
None (of these common garden birds) would quicken the heart of an obsessive twitcher; none are the 'charismatic species' beloved of conservationists. But to me they are infinitely precious, their fleeting presence in my urban garden never less than a gift: winged emissaries of wildness, beautiful and perfect, their tolerance of our proximity a more than just reward for the money we spend on seed. For it can't be easy. Not only must they contend with concrete, cats and garden chemicals, but the same levels of toxic airborne pollution that led … to (a) city's schoolchildren being kept indoors. Birds inhale far more particulates than we do, while prolonged exposure to nitrogen oxides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been shown to reduce growth and interfere with egg-laying and brood success, lead to lung damage, lower red blood counts, DNA mutations and cancer. In 1986 … Cities and towns must clean up their act .
In our suburban garden during 2023 we have enjoyed the presence of over 73 different species of birds. J and I need to correlate our lists, but somewhere around that number at least. These are all just birds being birds right here where we live. Stretching out to within, say, a 20 minute walk there were a good number more to be enjoyed. We are fortunate to have plenty of trees around the garden, and we have a wide selection of native plants (over 50 when we did a count at the end of last summer) and don’t have a lawn. Something which helps a lot. All of these features managed to attract wildlife and to boost our species count rather than look the tidiest green square on the road. On the other hand, to get to us, those birds have had to pass through and over other gardens where they are so rarely remarked upon. It’s sad when people say “Oh, you are sooo lucky” when really they could be enjoying these same species too if they were to spend a bit more time outside and just looking around - holding a cold drink in hand is always optional.
Loved this one, especially the bit about distinguishing between crow and raven. We like the usual birds a lot, though we couldn’t help but enthuse over an unusual Tropical Kingbird sighting the other day.