It is early on a Saturday morning; the sun has barely risen and the windchill is hovering around -25.
A group of bird enthusiasts excitedly greet each other at Callander’s municipal dock preparing for a day of bird watching as part of North Bay’s Christmas Bird Count.
Participants in this group hail from New York, Toronto, North Bay, and Sundridge.
Nandadevi Cortes who has previously attended the North Bay count, flew from New York to be part of this year’s survey.
“I try to come here every year. It gives us an idea of what birds are in the area. They are very different from Mexico where I grew up, so it is kind of cool,” shared Cortes.
Her first outing provided exciting results.
“We saw pileated woodpeckers and we saw shrike which are rare in this area, and bald eagles.”
Equipped with binoculars, the group scans Callander Bay looking for any signs of bird activity.
“It is a good area for birds. There is no open water today but if there was, there would be the chance of seeing some waterfowl, more species of gulls. It is just a good starting point,” explained longtime birder Stephen O’Donnell.
The group turns and makes its way toward an eagle nest, their boots crunching through the snow as they walk along a nearby trail, their eyes looking upward, scanning trees and the sky looking for any number of species of bird.
A short time later, the group stops behind O’Donnell who has taken the lead.
O’Donnell puts his fingers to his lips making a “squeaking” noise to attract birds.
“It’s sucking air through your fingers, it is like a kissing sound. Nobody knows why it works, but it works,” laughed O’Donnell.
Within minutes of uttering the sound, the group spots and records the appearance of nine chickadees.
The seventy-year-old O’Donnell participated in his first Christmas bird count when he was just 14 years old, living in the Ottawa area.
He eventually moved to Sundridge in ’89 where his love of bird counting continued, extending his count circle to include North Bay.
Heading back to the Callander dock area from the trail, there was plenty of excitement and finger-pointing as word quickly spread that a bald eagle had been spotted on Callander Bay.
A quick look through their binoculars confirmed that a juvenile bald eagle was in fact on the ice.
Their enthusiasm was contagious.
“There must be a fish or something there. It was something they wanted to eat. The ravens came to check out what it was doing,” explained O’Donnell.
A few moments later an adult bald eagle flew directly toward the group from the same location, quickly and effortlessly closing the gap as it soared overhead against the bright blue sky.
“It is always exciting,” said a grinning O’Donnell.
“It is always a pleasure seeing things you share the world with.”
Unfortunately, over time, there has been a decline in some bird populations.
“Absolutely. It is getting very depressing especially, with what we call the neotropical migrants, the ones that winter in central, south America, Mexico, their numbers are declining incredibly,” shared O’Donnell.
“As a boy I can remember going to Point Pelee and the numbers were amazing. Now it is still the same number of species, but fewer of each.”
Within thirty minutes the group was able to identify numerous species in the government dock area of Callander.
” We saw Kingfisher, chickadees, goldfinches, hairy woodpecker, blue jay, ravens, Cooper’s hawk and of course the eagles. All just from here,” shared O’Donnell.
“It is unusual because Cooper’s hawk is new I think for the count. You don’t always get that many birds at each stop.”
Their day would go on to include more wood searches and a trip to a nearby dump where food is plentiful in their assigned count circle locations.
Fifty people signed up for the count, evenly split between those who survey on the road and on foot, and those who survey their feeders or yards.
The North Bay count circle which has been ongoing for over 40 years covers a 15-mile radius central to Dugas Bay.
“It is an international program now. It originated roughly 130 years ago in the United States when traditionally at Christmas time, people would go out and shoot birds. Someone came up with the idea that rather than shooting them, maybe they should just count them, because they were starting to become extinct,” explained Lori Anderson a member of the Nipissing Naturalists Club and Bird Wing, a bird club affiliated with the Naturalists Club.
Her title for the count is compiler.
“There are many, many countries now that actually do it, and the data is all collected. There is a protocol to follow when we count and survey. A lot of researchers use it as a starting point when they want to research a certain species and study population dynamics and what not, because they give such a historical snapshot of a large area.”
Anderson explains the trend in the North Bay area over the past five or ten years.
“We have a few species that have increased, the bald eagle is one of them. I would say that snow bunting has declined, and some species are highly variable because we have a lot of water. Some years there is open water, and we get a lot of waterfowl and then other years we’ll hardly have any.”
Anderson points to a new trend for mallard ducks.
“Something that has happened very recently is mallard ducks overwinter in North Bay, and they always used to migrate,” shared Anderson.
“There is some open water in one spot in Trout Lake which is east of Average Joe’s. They (mallards) have to have open water, and the other is the water treatment plant. They all go in there and I guess they get food in there, and people feed them. As soon as one duck doesn’t migrate and another duck mates with it and they stay, then it starts that trend. Somewhere along the line, a duck or two survived over a winter here, and they got going.”
There is good reason for conducting the survey at this time of year.
“They’re not migrating anymore, they’re where they’re going to be for the winter. So, it standardizes the locations a little bit. In the spring or late summer and all through the fall, different species migrate at different times.”
Birders aren’t taken aback if they see robins during the count.
“We see robins quite often. When you get 25 people out spending the whole day looking for birds, it is quite surprising what you can see,” laughed Anderson.
“It is quite enjoyable for the participants to do. We’re always anxious as a group to see what we wind up with. But it is also pretty important research, so it feels rewarding to work towards that.”
Results of the completed count are forwarded to the National Audubon Society.
“They collect a lot of details about our count such as the accumulative distances travelled on foot and in the car, how many points are watched of feeders, and the time spent doing that,” explained Anderson.
“And that information is public, so anyone can google Christmas Bird Count and they’ll find it there.”
Preliminary numbers should be ready within a day or two of the count with final numbers ready within a few weeks.
