Christmas Bird Counting

What is your definition of sport?

Not that long ago the Christmas holiday season was an occasion to haul out your gun and go out and shoot as many birds as you could  find.

In 1900 ornithologist Frank Chapman came up with an option to killing birds that, if not sport, at least seems more sporting. 

Toward the end of the 19th century the conservation movement was starting to grow and Chapman developed the idea of a bird census for Christmas Day that year.   That first Christmas event was held in 25 different locations around North America.  Apparently there were 27 counters covering these 25 locations suggesting an extremely solitary pursuit for most participating counters.  A total of 89 species and about 18,500 individuals were recorded when all the counts were combined.

The list below (http://web4.audubon.org/bird/cbc/history.html) includes at least two species that aren’t in good shape 110 years later.  The Greater Prairie Chicken, for one,   was once abundant in Ontario is almost gone due to habitat destruction.  Another bird, the White Headed Woodpecker is on the threatened list in Canada with only a few birds breeding in the South Okanagan.  Unlike woodpeckers that we are familiar with it likes seeds (not insects) and prefers ponderosa pines for its habitat.

Two of these first counts were in Canadian locations – Toronto and Scotch Lake, York County, New Brunswick (near Fredericton.)  At Scotch Lake William H. Moore spent an hour on Christmas morning and recorded 36 birds representing nine species. (See The Christmas Bird Count:  A Long Tradition by David Christie at http://www.elements.nb.ca/theme/winter/david/david.htm)

Nature Canada this month that nearly 400 Christmas Bird Counts will be held in Canada this year.  There will be 125 in Ontario alone.  An estimated 12,000 volunteer, citizen scientists are expected to be involved. The 2010 counts tallied 3.3 million birds.

Close to home the Long Point count held on December17th this year just west of Port Dover and reported today tallied 66,700 individual birds and 113 species.
I haven’t seen the Hamilton area numbers yet but in the days preceding their count (December 26th) a Black-throated Gray Warbler, very rare for these parts, had been seen regularly at  Bayfront Park.

You can see that bird and many others at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO9ZMJt14cs part of a series filmed by Graham Wood.

First CBC: December 25, 1900

* American Black Duck
* Mallard
* Common Goldeneye
* Ruffed Grouse
* Greater Prairie-Chicken
* California Quail
* Northern Bobwhite
* Common Loon
* Horned Grebe
* Turkey Vulture
* Northern Goshawk
* Red-shouldered Hawk
* Red-tailed Hawk
* Ferruginous Hawk
* American Kestrel
* Killdeer
* Herring Gull
* Great Black-backed Gull
* Band-tailed Pigeon
* Mourning Dove
* Burrowing Owl
* Barred Owl
* Common Poor-will
* Anna's Hummingbird
* Lewis's Woodpecker
* Red-bellied Woodpecker
* Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
* Downy Woodpecker
* Hairy Woodpecker
* White-headed Woodpecker  
* Northern Flicker
* Black Phoebe
* Say's Phoebe
* Loggerhead Shrike
* Northern Shrike
* Hutton's Vireo
* Blue Jay
* Western Scrub-Jay
* Black-billed Magpie
* American Crow
* Fish Crow
* Horned Lark
* Carolina Chickadee
* Black-capped Chickadee
* Mountain Chickadee
* Plain Titmouse
* Tufted Titmouse
* Bushtit
* Red-breasted Nuthatch
* White-breasted Nuthatch
* Pygmy Nuthatch* Brown Creeper
* Carolina Wren
* Winter Wren
* Golden-crowned Kinglet
* Ruby-crowned Kinglet
* Eastern Bluebird
* Western Bluebird
* Hermit Thrush
* American Robin  
* Varied Thrush
* Wrentit
* Northern Mockingbird
* European Starling
* American Pipit
* Yellow-rumped Warbler
* Townsend's Warbler
* Spotted Towhee
* Canyon Towhee
* American Tree Sparrow
* Field Sparrow * Fox Sparrow
* Song Sparrow
* Swamp Sparrow
* White-throated Sparrow
* White-crowned Sparrow
* Golden-crowned Sparrow
* Dark-eyed Junco
* Northern Cardinal
* Red-winged Blackbird
* Eastern Meadowlark
* Western Meadowlark
* Brewer's Blackbird
* Common Grackle
* Pine Grosbeak
* Purple Finch
* House Finch
* Red Crossbill
* American Goldfinch

Daniel Nestor

I voted for Dylan Armstrong in the CBC Athlete of the year poll (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/blogs/scottrussell/2011/11/a-deserving-dozen-candidates-for-canadas-athlete-of-the-year.html.)

I voted for Armstrong although Daniel Nestor would have been my first choice if he’d made the short list. I’m not sure why he was omitted.

On Grey Cup weekend when others were distracted by the Kapp-Mosca brouhaha Nestor won his 75^th doubles title and the season ending Year End Championships with current partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus.   

His milestone victory makes him the fourth best doubles player of all time and by winning match number 783 earlier this year he became the career doubles leader.  

Nestor’s season record of 49 wins against 19 losses included a major – the French Open.

Approaching forty Nestor seems to be at the top of his game in the highly competitive world of international tennis.r