These are the results of the 39th Woodhouse Christmas Bird Count (CBC) held on Sunday December 14th, 2025. The Woodhouse CBC is centred 7 km east of Simcoe, at the crossroads of Highway 3 and Cockshutt Road at Renton, and roughly covers from Port Ryerse and Port Dover to Waterford and from west of Simcoe to east of Jarvis. This year there were 34 field birders covering the count area plus 12 feeder watchers. Conditions were bitterly cold to start the day with temperatures of -15, light west winds (0-15 km/h), plenty of snow cover, and barely any open water away from lake Erie or moving streams. It "warmed up" to about -7 by the afternoon, but the sun felt nice when it was poking out from the clouds. The cold temperatures leading up to the count and subsequent freeze up of inland bodies of water meant waterfowl was tough to come by and were detected in low numbers. Although Lake Erie was open, it was largely devoid of ducks, gulls, and other waterbirds for some reason. We tallied 89 species on the day, 2 more than the average of the last 10 years, and above the 39-year average of 85. There were 5 "count week" species that were found within 3 days of the count, but missed on the day. The count resulted in 1 new species being added to our count list - a Lincoln's Sparrow was found hanging out with a group of Swamp Sparrows. Most winters there are only 1 or 2 that are found in the province in December so this year it was our turn to host this handsome sparrow. This brings our all-time species list to 157. We also set 4 new count highs. 15 Common Raven surpasses the 14 recorded in 2021, and this will get broken again as this species continues to recolonize Norfolk County and southern Ontario more broadly. 11 Hermit Thrush surpasses the 7 found last year, 94 White-throated Sparrow beats the 66 recorded in 2023, and 14(!) Yellow-bellied Sapsucker obliterates the previous record of 5 from last year. In fact, last year I didn't realize that we set the new high count for Yellow-bellied Sapsucker for any CBC in Canada at 5, and now we have just upped the Canadian record to 14! For some historical context on the Woodhouse Count, from 1987 to 2023, we only recorded Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 11 times on the count day. On most counts it was absent entirely, but occasionally 1 or 2 would be found. For whatever reason, there were a lot around this winter so it will be interesting to watch results from other CBCs and see if any other counts put up big numbers for this species. Total Individuals: 15,346 (top 3 species were Canada Goose, Slate-coloured Junco, and European Starling) Average over all 39 years = 24,448 Average for the last 10 years = 18,031 Total Species: 89 + 5 count week. Count week species were: Cackling Goose, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Iceland Gull, American Pipit New for Count 1 Lincoln's Sparrow New Count Highs or ties: 14 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (5 in 2024) 15 Common Raven (14 in 2021) 11 Hermit Thrush (7 in 2024) 94 White-throated Sparrow (66 in 2023) 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet (3 in 2024) 2 Peregrine Falcon (2 multiple times) Other Notable Finds: 1 Northern Pintail 1 Red-shouldered Hawk (infrequent, returning bird from last year perhaps) 1 Killdeer 1 Eastern Towhee 1 Gray Catbird 5 Fox Sparrow 1 White-winged Crossbill 1 Redpoll Lowlights and Misses: 0 Horned Grebe (Last missed in 2014) 0 Cackling Goose (Last missed in 2010) 0 Gadwall (Last missed in 2013) 0 Mockingbird (Last missed in 2015) 5 Greater Scaup (Lowest since 1988) 2 American Kestrel (matches our lowest ever, and a far cry from when we would routinely tally 30-60 birds in the 1990s) 16 American Herring Gull (lowest ever) Below is the full species list: Great Blue Heron 3 Trumpeter Swan 7 Tundra Swan 6 Canada Goose 5205 Mallard 913 American Black Duck 27 Northern Pintail 1 American Green-winged Teal 1 Canvasback 3 Redhead 2 Greater Scaup 5 Common Goldeneye 135 Bufflehead 94 Hooded Merganser 6 Common Merganser 266 Red-breasted Merganser 51 Ruddy Duck 1 Bald Eagle 17 Northern Harrier 16 Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 Cooper's Hawk 8 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 78 Rough-legged Hawk 3 Golden Eagle 1 Peregrine Falcon 2 American Kestrel 2 Merlin 3 Wild Turkey 79 Killdeer 1 Bonaparte's Gull 17 Ring-billed Gull 149 American Herring Gull 16 Great Black-backed Gull 1 Rock Pigeon 411 Mourning Dove 603 Eastern Screech-Owl 1 Belted Kingfisher 3 Red-bellied Woodpecker 57 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 14 Downy Woodpecker 66 Hairy Woodpecker 15 Yellow-shafted Flicker 12 Pileated Woodpecker 5 Northern Shrike 2 Blue Jay 410 American Crow 405 Common Raven 15 Horned Lark 54 Black-capped Chickadee 335 Eastern Tufted Titmouse 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch 33 White-breasted Nuthatch 72 Brown Creeper 18 Carolina Wren 23 Winter Wren 13 Golden-crowned Kinglet 45 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3 Eastern Bluebird 68 Hermit Thrush 11 American Robin 15 Gray Catbird 1 European Starling 1408 Cedar Waxwing 31 Myrtle Warbler 4 Eastern Towhee 1 American Tree Sparrow 540 Chipping Sparrow 1 Field Sparrow 2 Fox Sparrow 5 Song Sparrow 51 Lincoln’s Sparrow 1 Swamp Sparrow 20 White-throated Sparrow 94 White-crowned Sparrow 27 Slate-colored Junco 1868 Snow Bunting 132 Northern Cardinal 278 Red-winged Blackbird 1 Rusty Blackbird 2 Common Grackle 4 Brown-headed Cowbird 42 Purple Finch 14 House Finch 127 White-winged Crossbill 1 Common Redpoll 1 Pine Siskin 89 American Goldfinch 188 House Sparrow 578