Port Hope-Cobourg Christmas Bird Count 2021 By Roger Frost The annual Port Hope-Cobourg Christmas Bird Count was held on Saturday December 18. This year, thirty-seven observers braved a raw, snowy, windy day. Along with six feeder counters, they tallied 17,930 birds of 77 species. In general, birds were hard to find because of the weather conditions. The snow particularly made visibility extremely poor, especially on Lake Ontario. Several species were found in record low numbers. These were: Red-tailed Hawk – 9 Rock Pigeon – 219 Hairy Woodpecker – 12 Blue Jay – 165 House Sparrow – 44 Record high counts were noted for five species: Trumpeter Swan – 18 (previous only 2) Canada Goose – 6,626 (previous 6,449) Cooper’s Hawk – 11 (tied previous high) Field Sparrow – 3 (tied previous high) White-throated Sparrow – 87 (previous 58) Unlike last year, finches were quite scarce with only American Goldfinch (907) noted in high numbers. Other highlights of the count were: Snow Goose – 2 Cackling Goose – 2 Northern Pintail -2 Northern Shoveler – 1 American Wigeon – 1 Peregrine Falcon – 1 American Coot – 1 Barred Owl – 4 Carolina Wren – 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 2 Hermit Thrush – 3 Northern Shrike – 1 Lapland Longspur – 1 Common Redpoll -10 Pine Siskin – 2 In addition, four species were noted during count week, but not on count day: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Swamp Sparrow Rusty Blackbird Common Grackle Thank you to all who participated, and for your effort on such an unpleasant day!