BBS 2010
I ran the Dwight route for the annual international Breeding Bird Survey for the 11th time on Saturday morning. I had a couple of treats this time.
The route begins at the same time every year, 4:54 a.m. or a half-hour before sunrise, and runs through mixed forest of the Haliburton Highlands. Along 40 km of road I make the same 50 stops every year, get out of the car and count every bird I can see and hear in three minutes. Most of the observations are auditory, so it is mandatory to be familiar with the vocalizations of all species expected to breed in the area.
Peak bird activity happens right around sunrise. After 6:00 the observations decline a little. But stop number 50 usually lets me end the route with a bang. After winding through dense mixed forest, streams and small lakes, the route ends overlooking distinctly different habitat, a slow-moving river with a characteristic boreal wet woods of spruce and tamarack on the far side. Practically every year something different and exciting turns up there.
This year was no disappointment! When I got out of the car, an olive-sided flycatcher was calling from high in some nearby conifers. I've only heard one once before in my life, but the call is an unmistakable quick! three beers. The species' range is widespread through the boreal forests of northern Canada, but in 2007 it was declared at risk. Its numbers have been declining, probably due to habitat loss in the Andes and Central America where it winters. My bird continued to call for three minutes, then fell silent. Unfortunately I never saw it.
At the same stop, at least two marsh wrens were answering one another with overlapping territorial chatter from the stream bank. This was another new species for the route.
I was also pleased to hear scarlet tanagers at five stops. Usually I am lucky to hear one. This species is also declining due to habitat fragmentation. It needs large tracts of deep forest in order to thrive. Fortunately Haliburton County seems to be hospitable.
Overall I counted 55 species, better than average, 352 individual birds. As usual the most abundant were red-eyed vireo (40 birds at 30 stops), ovenbird (26/20), chestnut-sided warbler (21/19), white-throated sparrow (18/15) and yellow-bellied sapsucker (17/12).