Timiskaming Birds Forum

The Elk Lake / Mountain Chutes Christmas Bird Count will be held this year on Sunday, December 27.

Dates for the Haileybury and Hilliardton counts have not yet been finalized, but the Haileybury count will probably take place on either the 13th or 19th. Technically, the official count period begins on December 14th.

If you would like to participate in the Elk Lake / Mountain Chutes count , please contact me at 705-544-8333. You can leave a message if you miss me.

To particapte in either of the other two counts, you can contact either myself, or Bruce Murphy (679-5030).

Hi Mike,

Looking forward to the counts...let's hope the weather co-operates..I don't want to miss our breakfast get together at McDonalds'''

The Christams bird count will once again be happening at the Hilliardton Marsh but this is the first year that we will comfortably be housed in our new building.  The count will convene at the birdhouse located at the Wool Mill Road entrance at 9:00 and the count will go until approximately 2:00 pm. Anyone interested in joining us for this bird count of not just the Marsh but of the surrounding area should join us at 9:00 or feel free to get in touch. While winter finches are low this year you never know what we might find to make the count interesting. The count at the Marsh was started in 2002 and over the years we have seen a total of 30 species of birds.

For those wishing to participate in the Elk Lake / Mountain Chutes count on Sunday, December 27th, we will meet at the Elk Lake Chip Stand at 9:00 am. Remember to bring a lunch, and perhaps a warm drink, as there will be no restaurants open in Elk Lake at this time of year.  Maps will be provided.  There aren't as many roads to cover as in the other two Timiskaming counts, so we should be able to have a relatively leisurely count if we have good numbers of participants.  Driving time to Elk Lake is about 45 minutes from New Liskeard and about 30 minutes from Englehart in good road conditions. See you there!

Another successful count on Dec. 27th, bringing this year's count season to a close for Timiskaming. Thanks to all who particiapted -- covering the ground was a lot easier this year with three teams!  The highlight of this year's count was a Boreal Chickadee, of which Serge got photos.  Other than that, a poor count for number of species - only 14 species observed, which was a bit of a surprise given the pleasant temperatures. Our average species count for this count circle over the previous 9 years is 18 species.  There was open water in several places on the Montreal River, but no birds at them. The most obvious misses this year were Downy Woodpecker, Crow and Common Redpoll, all of which we have had on all previous Elk Lake / Mountain Chutes counts.  527 individual birds were counted, which is also below our 9-year average of 650, though there is much wider variation in number of birds counted. Cheers all, and enjoy the rest of the Christmas season.

sorry I could not mae it can you believe that birds can get preempted by family commitments!!!!   Next year i will have to book earlier. What was the species list?? Very cool that 2 counts in the area got a boreal chickadee. Sorry i missed the count sounds like a few of you were able to get the triple crown of  counts if i am allowed the mixed metaphor. All the best in 2010 Murph