Fredericton Christmas Bird Count

Douglas Sector

Canada Goose

The 2019 Fredericton Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was held on Sunday, December 15. Small groups of people covered various areas of the city and surrounding area to count our bird population.  The count area is a 24 km circle which includes all of the city and some of the surrounding areas.  The Douglas sector includes the area from the trail crossing below Claudie Road to just above Grand Pass.  This area has a lot of river access so waterfowl is a large part of the count.

Sunday was an atrocious day to be doing a CBC.  The winds were very high and it rained for most of the morning.  The wind was so bad it never stopped howling all day and I had to hang onto my scope and tripod to prevent them from blowing over.  The rain was heavy for the first part of the morning and it was coming down so hard the wind drove it sideways.  Counting waterfowl requires a very early count because they move right after sunrise to feeding areas.  So, to get an accurate tally of population numbers we had to start early.  Needless to say we got very cold and very wet.  

But, it was worth it.  We tallied a good representation of the true numbers.  We counted at four major places along the river in the designated area.  The most outstanding waterfowl species was the Canada Goose.  We counted 419 just after sunrise.  In the next hour or so we saw three more flocks; 25, 33 and 129.  The quandary then was to decide whether these were new birds or had we counted them already.  There could have been fresh flocks moving down river which joined the existing flock, for example.  I decided to record a portion of those last groups to make it as accurate as possible.  

Another outstanding observation on that day was the lack of finches and woodpeckers.  We got very few of either.  Because of the harsh weather I believe the woodpeckers remained in their holes that day.  Woodpeckers spend nights and bad weather in nest holes in trees.  There are certainly more finches in the area than recorded that day.  The high winds forced them to hold tight in sheltered areas and that is why we did not see many.  

The last and for me the most exciting find was a sighting on a far bank of the river.  We saw a black area there and assumed at first it was a group of black ducks.  When I finally got my scope on them, wow, it turned out to be two otters!  They were sitting on the river bank eating fish.  When they finished one, they would swim out into the water and catch another and return to the bank to eat it.  I have not seen otters in this area since I was a child.  I remember them sliding down muddy slides into the Nashwaaksis stream.  I often wondered if I would ever live long enough to see their return.  That made this sighting very significant for me.  I hope they will be protected and their population increases. 

See below for the tally for the Douglas sector of the Fredericton CBC.

Canada Goose             513

American Black Duck    2

Common Goldeneye     46

Barrow's Goldeneye        1

Hooded Merganser          1

Common Merganser        6

Bald Eagle                       6

Red-tailed Hawk              1

Hawk sp.                          1

Ring-billed Gull               1

Herring Gull                   16

Gull sp.                             1

Rock Pigeon                   59

Mourning Dove              13

Hairy Woodpecker           1

Downy Woodpecker         2

Blue Jay                            6

American Crow               83

Common Raven                7

Black-capped Chickadee 47

Red-breasted Nuthatch      7

White-breasted Nuthatch   5

American Goldfinch         28

Pine Siskin                         2

Total birds                      855