CBC's.....aka the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Christmas Bird Counts

Ok, so I for those that don't know what a CBC is....it's a volunteer run program where you count and record all the birds you see during a single day, for the purpose of figuring out population trends

In lamon's terms though, its something that 'special'/crazy/unique people do. This involves fun; like getting up at 5am, standing around while listen for imaginary birds in below freezing weather. Sound fun? No?

Here's the link to Bird Studies Canada webpage:
http://www.bsc-eoc.org/volunteer/cbc/index.jsp?targetpg=cbcparticpate&lang=EN

 
This past weekend saw the first big weekend for Christmas Bird Counts. Locally and personally the Kitchener CBC was held on Saturday, while Cambridge's was held today (Sunday). CBC's are always a fun and interesting time of year, when we see what's wintering in our area.

For Kitchener we cover an on the west and northish side of the count circle, covering the fields along Wilmot Line, and areas around Erbsville. We found 48 species in our area and came up with some pretty cool birds!

Sandhill Crane's - flocks of 30, and 37 heading SW, while we were in Erbsville (2nd count record for Kitchener)

Field Sparrow - 1 bird behind the Outdoor Ed Centre, also hanging with it included 3 White-throat's and a Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed 'Oregon' Junco - 1 bird in Erbsville
Northern Harrier - 2 birds (both males), 1 was a bird, which seemed to be actively migrating
Green-winged Teal - 1 at Laurel Creek CA - Mike had it above the dam

Cambridge
Another pretty sweet day. We cover an area around Puslinch Lake, and also Valen's CA. We came up with an amazing 52 species! Puslinch and Valen's were both (semi) open, which gave us a good 10 species, we otherwise would have missed. Some of the highlights below:

Common Raven - 2 at Puslinch (2nd count record), later seen near Valen's

Common Rave (1 of 2 present) - this is the 2nd count record

Tundra Swan - 4 birds at Valen's
Ring-necked Duck - 1 drake at Valen's

Gadwall - 4 at Valen's
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1 adult at Puslinch
Glaucous Gull - 1 adult at Puslinch
Iceland Gull - 1 first-winter at Puslinch
American Coot - 2 birds at Puslinch
Hooded Merganser - 7 birds at Puslinch
White-winged Crossbill - 1 flyover at Puslinch

Not too sure what else was seen on the rest of the count, but it would be interesting whether 'we' beat our previous high count (71 species).