hitting the peak!

Seven participants in a birding workshop called “hitting the peak” and their two leaders watched awe-struck as a river of birds flew past them, above the tree tops and toward the north eastern tip of the Bruce Peninsula. One of the participants had mentioned several times to the group that the flow of birds was amazing and relentless, motivating the group of bird watchers to try and measure the intensity of the migration. A five minute count was held about 10:00 am when the intensity seemed typical of what had been observed over the last several hours. The total was remarkable – 451 individuals of many species. As they all agreed that likely they were undercounting, it was estimated that there were approximately 100 birds a minute flying past continuous, likely since dawn. Around 11H30 the flow suddenly slowed to a trickle, but a simple calculation extrapolates that 30,000 birds flew past between about 6H00 am and 11H30!

“This was a remarkable demonstration of migration” says BPBO president Ted Cheskey. “It was so wonderful that the day after International Migratory Bird Day, this group of interested and passionate people were able to bear witness to one of the greatest natural spectacles on earth!” The movement was eastward, along the northern shore of the Bruce Peninsula. Birds use coast lines to help orient their migration as they work their way north to their breeding grounds in the spring. The water of Georgian Bay is a barrier to diurnal migration, which takes places slowly with frequent feeding stops. Normally songbirds migrate at night, so seeing such a frenetic movement during the day is a sign that the birds are anxious to move.