This year’s success at the location of owls (four species) was spectacular thanks mostly to Ray Cooke and David Stewart who did tape call responses for the nocturnal owl species. One owl even called into the dawn at Tracadie and was picked up in area 5 as was a Snowy Owl later on the Blooming Point Sandspit.

other unusual numbers or sightings included a a Great Blue Heron, a Northern Harrier, a Rough-legged Hawk, 3 Common Eider in the National park count area; a Common Loon, 4 Bald Eagles, 107 Iceland Gulls, a White-breasted Nuthatch, and 14 Song Sparrows in the Hillsborough count area; and 3 Eurasiar Widgeons and 11 Common Grackles in the Montague count area. As has been the pattern in recent years, the number of Mourning Dove was also up.

Jim Wilson in Southern New Brunswick reported that mainland counters ha< also seen large numbers of robins and Cedar Waxwings. In addition, they see: large numbers of crossbills along the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy their first winter Harris Sparrow, a Mew Gull, a Blue Grosbeak, and, in th‘ Moncton area, 140 House Finch.

Observations Number in the Count Area N. Park Hillsb. Montag. Common Loon . . . . 1CP . . 1 Great Blue Heron 1 . . . 1 . . . Canada Geese 1 . . . . . . . . Mallard 9 . . 11 . . . Black Duck 591 . . 381 . 278 Northern Pintail 2 . . . . . . . . Eurasian Widgeon . . . . . . . . . 3 Ducks UID . . . . . . . . 219 Scaup spp. . . . . 24 . . . Common Goldeneye 78 . . 220 . 218 Barrow’s Goldeneye 1 . . . 1 . . . Oldsquaw 34 . . . 3 . . 42 Common Eider 3 . . . . . . . . White-winged Scoter 2 . . . . . . . . Black Scoter 1 . . . 3 . . . Common Merganser ' 20 . . 169 . 199 Red-breasted Merganser . . . . . 3 . . . Merganser UID . . . . . . . . . 2 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 . . . 3 . 1CP Red-tailed Hawk . . . . . 1 . . . Rough-legged Hawk 1 . . . . . . . . Bald Eagle 2 . . . 4 . . 5 Northern Harrier 1 . . . . . . . . Merlin . . . . . 2 . . 1 Ruffed Grouse 2 . . . 7 . . 7 Gray Partridge . . . . 79 . . 3 Glaucous Gull . . . . . 3 . . . Iceland Gull 3 . . 107 . . . Greater Black-backed Gull 94 . . 580 . . 81 Herring Gull 500 . 1019 . . 16 Ring-billed Gull 3 . . . . . . . 1 Bonaparte's Gull 17 . . . 1 . . . Gull spp. 43 . . . 4 . . 93