Finalizing 2020

 So as some of you know, last year I kept a tally of the birds I see in one year month by month with totals of species seen and individuals. Well, I decided to do it again in 2020, but this year with eBird making a change to their summarize observations (i.e. removing it altogether) it has taken me a little longer than usual to complete this last year, I also moved it over to Google Docs rather than an excel sheet so there was a little getting used to there! 

This year I decided to do some pie charts as well to visualize the data, and share what birds made it over 1000 birds seen! 

I get asked why I do this from time to time, and it's so I can see my total birds seen and how many I saw of a certain species and when on a quick and easy look instead of the long way of going through every bird in eBird. I also like displaying my sightings with charts to represent the birds I've seen and like going back through the year on what good times I've had in the last year (even this year with COVID).

This data is also going to go into a spreadsheet with my totals for 5 and 10-year intervals to see just how many species and individuals I've seen in that time period, so keep an eye out for that in my 2025 and 2030 year-end posts! 

In 2020 I amassed 262 species and counted 135,454 individual birds! A personal high on both fronts! 

Here are the top 5 species I saw in 2020: 

1. Number 1 at a crazy number was Double-crested Cormorant at a total of 21,307 individual birds! This is mostly due to monitoring the massive colony off the coast of Rock Point PP which can number over 2,000 individuals at 1 time! 
2. Not really a surprise for a Southern Ontario birder like myself, number 2 was Canada Goose at a total of 13,794 birds! I expect to surpass this in 2021. 
3. Number 3 follows suit with the water-bird theme here, a really common bird off the coast of Lake Ontario every winter, Long-tailed Duck at a count of 13,128 birds. 
4. Taking away from the water birds this is the only invasive species on the list, European Starling, with a count of 10,448 birds, which does not seem very big and will probably be bigger in 2021 with the Breeding Bird Atlas keeping more on the look for any breeding birds in my square. 
5. Finally, we dip back into the waterfowl for #5 with Red-breasted Merganser with a count of 7,496 individuals! This is one I never expected to reach the top 5, possibly top 10 but the top 5 is exceptional! 

These birds made up just less than 50% of all the birds I saw in 2020, and 16 other species topped 1000 individual birds seen each which included: 

1. Red-winged Blackbird (6,940)
2. Ring-billed Gull (6,470)
3. Mallard (4,509)
4. Common Grackle (3,412)
5. Greater Scaup (3,313)
6. Redhead (2,743)
7. Bonaparte's Gull (2,449)
8. Common Goldeneye (2,213)
9. Tree Swallow (1,689)
10. American Robin (1,501)
11. Bufflehead (1,349)
12. White-winged Scoter (1,318)
13. Surf Scoter (1,097)
14. American Goldfinch (1,085)
15. Song Sparrow (1,013)
16. Killdeer (1,001)

Some of these birds may change spots in 2021, which I'm excited to see what ones fit in where within the next year!

Chart showing the Total Species I saw for each month in 2020 (p.s. I've already eclipsed January's total from 2020 this year). 

Chart showing the Total Individual birds I saw for each month in 2020 (p.s. I've already eclipsed January's total from 2020 this year).