Woodstock Field Naturalists' Club

The first Christmas Bird Count was held on Christmas Day in 1900 in New York City. Now, about 60,000 people participate annually in over 2000 different Christmas Bird Counts held throughout North and South America. The data collected are used to analyze changes in bird numbers. For example, Audubon’s 2009 report explores the impact of climate change on bird populations across the continent. The Woodstock Christmas Bird Count has been held in mid-December every year since 1934. You can download an excel summary of our results below.

​

The 90th annual Woodstock Christmas Bird Count was held on December 16th, 2023. Twenty-seven field observers and five feeder watchers together reported a record 132,241 birds of 72 species . This tied our previous high count for species set in 2011. Three new species were recorded on the count: Trumpeter Swan, Eastern Phoebe and Baltimore Oriole. Eleven high counts were recorded: Mute Swan (4, ties previous high), Bald Eagle (15, previous high 14), Sandhill Crane (71, previous high 65), Herring Gull (3543, previous high 1370), Iceland Gull (9, previous high 2), Lesser Black-backed Gull (9, previous high 2), Eastern Screech Owl (28, ties previous high), American Crow (118,384, previous high 87,087), Hermit Thrush (4, previous high 2), American Robin (75, previous high 67) and Red-winged Blackbird (29, previous high 24)).  The weather on count day was excellent for birding with low winds and no precipitation. Birds recorded on 10 or fewer counts included: Snow Goose (8th count), Mute Swan (8th count), Trumpeter Swan (1st count), Lesser Black-backed Gull (6th count), Glaucous Gull (7th count), Eastern Phoebe (1st count, found on count week once previously), Marsh Wren (2nd count), Common Yellowthroat (4th count), Fox Sparrow (4th count), White-crowned Sparrow (10th count) and Baltimore Oriole (1st count).

​

The photo below is of the Common Yellowthroat found on the 2023 count (taken by Alexander Skevington). Photos documenting rare birds are not always great - they just need to be good enough to document the find. The photos of the Marsh Wren (by Alexander Skevington) and Baltimore Oriole (by Chad Cornish) from the count are even worse, but they do the job and provide lasting evidence that these species were correctly identified. All have been uploaded to eBird to provide long term support of the sightings (https://ebird.org/checklist/S156435099 for the Marsh Wren and https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S156444964 for the Baltimore Oriole). Count data are stored by the Audubon Society in conjunction with Birds Canada. To explore the count data, go to the Audubon data portal.