Annual Christmas Bird Count in Timmins sees rare species

Bird lovers in Timmins participated in North American's longest-running wildlife census on Saturday.

It event originated in New Jersey in 1900 and people in Timmins have been participating for the past 28 years.

"We count every single bird we see. We have about 35-40 species of birds that overwinters in the Timmins area so we see what we can see today and count the numbers of the flocks," said Roxane Filion, a participant in the Timmins Christmas Bird Count.

It was Swapnil Dhandhukia's second time participating in this Citizen scientist endeavour. He moved to Timmins three and a half years ago and said his home town is nothing like Timmins.

“So whenever I wanted to go for bird watching or like really good national park or sanctuary to just go for wildlife photography as well, it’s almost like six to seven hours,” Dhandhukia said.

“So choosing Timmins ... was the best decision because where else can you see the bears in your backyard when you just open you door,"

During the count, he and Filion spotted a raven flying with some raw meat in its mouth and a northern shrike.

“The data is actually used by scientists to see bird trends – which population go up; go down and it’s the same time of year every so they have a good data set.”

Filion will be taking over the coordination of the Timmins Christmas Bird Count next year from Mark Joron who has organized it for the past 20 years.

“When we started we didn’t see many blue jays; we never saw the bald eagles here in the winter time but absolutely, we see bald eagles and we see Bbue jays all the time now so our list is getting longer and it’s kinda showing that the birds are recovering a bit but also they’re moving a little bit further north as the weather is better.”

There is no fee to participate in the Timmins Christmas Bird Count and the information collected helps develop strategies for species in decline.

For more information on the event and to see photos, visit their Facebook page.