Eurasian Tree Sparrows at Fort St. Joseph
Written by Carter Dorscht, Executive Director
Yesterday, Fort St. Joseph National Historic Site opened to the public for World Migratory Bird Day and I was there representing The Kensington Conservancy to help point out birds throughout the day. It was absolutely fantastic that 40+ birders and nature enthusiasts came out to take advantage of this special access. Collectively, at least 103 species were recorded and I set my personal best with 95 species for the site in a single day (I'll get 100 myself one of these years!).
Most noteworthy was a high count of five Eurasian Tree Sparrows. However, I think there could have been as high as eight individuals. We had two individuals around 9:15am, who hung around for a bit, then disappeared. Around 10:30am, five individuals came flying in, who also disappeared after a bit. About an hour later, a single bird flew in, but was only around for a few minutes. Were these birds always around and we'd just see a varying number of these individuals or were these different groups who were actively migrating and landing at the point briefly before continuing on? Based just on eBird data, the definite count of five would represent an all-time high count for all of Canada, beating numerous counts of two.
Eurasian Tree Sparrow at Fort St. Joseph on May 13, 2023
Eurasian Tree Sparrows at Fort St. Joseph on May 13, 2023
Last year during this same weekend, I recorded the site's first record of Eurasian Tree Sparrow, which was only the second record of the Algoma District at the time. There was another record in Algoma later in May last year, and before yesterday, Algoma had three records of five individuals already this year. How many of these birds are going undetected on the many days that there's no birders at Algoma's good migration hotspots? The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has also experienced a significant increase in Eurasian Tree Sparrow records this spring, I've lost count of how many they've had. Whitefish Point has been getting a crazy number of them the last few days, with eight confirmed at once and a potential group of ten. It'll be interesting to see if this trend continues!
Eurasian Tree Sparrow at Fort St. Joseph on May 14, 2022
