The 2022 Christmas Bird Count in New Brunswick

Forty-nine Count Circles. 1,000 observers. 1,550 hours of observations. More than 15,000 km covered including almost 850 on foot. Result: 136,194 birds from 140 species. Plus, one more species found during the Count Week and five further species found during the Count Period. Total: 146 species.

This was the 75th year in which New Brunswickers have participated in the Christmas Bird Count (or CBC) since it started in 1900. And just one more stat – with 594 CBCs in Canada this year, New Brunswick’s 49 counts were the third most of any province, behind only Ontario and British Columbia. Not bad for a small province and maybe the most complete coverage of any province’s land and coastal areas.

As for the birds, I will leave it to researchers (see last few paragraphs) to identify differences to other years or trends in geographic distribution of any species, but a few things did catch my eye.

• Half the birds are from just five species – European Starling, Herring Gull, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, and Rock Pigeon.
• Two species were found on every count – Ravens and Chickadees.
• Eight species were seen for the first time in at least the 10 or 12 years that I have been involved in compiling the count. A single Ruddy Duck in both Sackville and Riverside-Albert. A Pomerine Jaeger at Shediac (an unidentified jaeger species was observed a couple of years ago at Cape Tormentine). Two Killdeer at Memramcook. A Great Egret at Sackville. Two Black-crowned Night Herons at Grand Manan.  A Green-tailed Towhee from the US southwest chose Sackville for its first-ever appearance on a Canadian Christmas Bird Count. And on the Eastport, Maine count which includes Deer Island and Campobello, a Prairie Warbler and a Painted Bunting.
• The always impressive Pileated Woodpecker seems to be doing well. There were 110 of them on 30 counts, with three counts reaching double figures – Cambridge Narrows (10), Woodstock (14) and Quispamsis-Hampton (15).
• Jacquet River reported that 6 of the 15 Goldeneye ducks that they observed were Barrow’s/Common hybrids. Hybridization between these two species is getting more attention recently. Some excellent photographs have been taken and are helping to explore this topic.
• Bald Eagles were reported on more counts than I would have expected.  695 eagles on 42 of 49 counts.
• Boreal Chickadees were very sparse with only 20 observed in the entire province. 50 years ago – just 1972 – there were 11 in Saint John and 25 in Fredericton; several counts had ten. Quicker and better answers to questions like how the Boreals have declined are much easier to obtain now (again, see the last few paragraphs).
• Rapidly gaining on the Boreals is the Tufted Titmouse.  They are quite regular along our border with Maine and have been seen further east as well.  This year, one was found in Hartland during the Count Week (CW) and one each was found in Fredericton, Saint Andrews, and Saint Stephen on their Count Days. Eastport, ME reported 12 for a total count result of 16 plus 1 CW.
• That other year-round resident of our forests that people often hope to see – the Canada Jay – was more plentiful and widespread.  A total of 86 were observed on 24 counts.
• Absentees were also notable – no Spruce Grouse, no Purple Sandpipers, no Murres of either type, no Puffins, and no Yellow-rumped Warblers. 

Rod O’Connell photographed Karl Branch searching hard for Canada Jays as they covered the Southeast Upsalquitch area.

New Brunswick’s Christmas Bird Count data may be one of the province’s most valuable environmental datasets. It is continuous over more than 60 years (with some data from the 60 preceding years as well) and it covers the province from deep forests to urban areas and along our three coastlines. There is probably no other environmental dataset that has such long-lasting and province-wide coverage of what is happening outdoors during the coldest and darkest period of the year. There is lots happening!

Results from every one of New Brunswick’s 2,300 CBCs has been available through the Nature NB website for a few years now at https://www.naturenb.ca/publications/nb-christmas-bird-counts/. It has recently been discovered that, thanks largely to David Christie’s early use of the computer, all data is also available in electronic format. Questions about Boreal Chickadees, movements of “northern finches” or advances and declines of other species should now be much more readily answerable. A project to integrate the two main data formats and make the data “searchable” is underway – and if you are interested or have database skills, please get in touch.

And finally, every year there are changes within New Brunswick’s compilers, something that is to be expected within an activity that has been going on for more than a century. This year, however, one compiler who has helped me a lot over the last few years left the count. Roger Leblanc not only encouraged me to track down and make available all of the province’s CBC data; he also helped to find old bits of missing data and made sure current counts got their data finalized and submitted. Roger compiled two counts but he participated in several more. I emailed Roger in English and he emailed me back in French. It worked. Salut, Roger! Tu me manques.

Donald MacPhail
December 2023