PARTIAL BIRD LIST FOR SEYMOUR TOWNSHIP,
NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, SOUTHEASTERN ONTARIO

Summary

A list of 114 bird species, observed in the area of interest from August 1998 to the present. This table lists bird species seen in Seymour township, 1998-2009. It includes all parts of the township, although the majority of sightings were made in the streets, parks and gardens of the town of Campbellford, in adjacent Ferris provincial park (east of the Trent river) and in the Trout Creek drainage immediately west of the town. Town location: 77°48'W, 44°17'N.

Geographical Setting

Seymour township includes Campbellford town and a Z-shaped reach of the Trent river, over 30 km long, winding through rolling hills and ridges of glacial deposits. It incorporates Seymour conservation area, Hoards, the Empire cheese factory, Menie, Burnbrae and Wilson Island in the southeast, Pethericks Corners, Crowe Bridge and Allan Mills in the northeast, Healey Falls, Seymour Lake and Trent River in the north, Meyersburg in the southwest, and much land west of Campbellford to within 2 km of Godolphin (which, like the town of Hastings, lies in adjacent Percy township to the west). Township boundaries run about 16° west of north and north of east, and the township is elongated along the N.N.W. axis, 19x16 km in size, total area roughly 304 km². The south boundary runs along the Percy Reach of the river Trent, and includes a 2.4-km hiking trail between Percy Reach and Meyer's Lock (Locks 8 and 9). South of the Reach, in Brighton and Murray townships, is the 48.5 km² Murray Marsh, the largest undisturbed area of marsh and swamp forest in southern Ontario. For the record, Seymour and Percy townships are now amalgamated in a larger municipal unit known as Trent Hills, area 511 km². Politically, the area forms the northeast corner of the wedge-shaped Northumberland-Quinte West federal riding, a sprawling area of 2,652 km² with 93,293 registered voters (October 2008).

The Bird List

The list currently includes 114 species. The true total of species which live, breed or fly over the region each year is quite probably 200-250 or more, and it is likely that expert "birders" ("twitchers" in the U.K.) might find 100 species in the township on a single well-chosen day. The original bird observations summarized here are associated with notes on other aspects of natural history, such as local animals, trees, plants and fungi. Fresh topics may be profiled here as more information becomes available. Note that other species of birds, animals and vegetation certainly occur here we have yet to observe them personally (e.g., bald eagle; snowy owl; purple finch; wood duck; black bear; otter; and fisher, all seen by others in Seymour township in 2002-2008). We have also seen other birds both east and west of Seymour but not yet in the township, for example the bobolink. The discrepancy in sightings is explained by several factors, such as a) sporadic observations, b) incomplete geographic or seasonal coverage of key areas of the township, particularly for some woodland species and water birds, and c) insufficient expertise in bird identification, particularly bird calls.

Some of the information has been compiled for thirty-two (32) species, for the five to (almost!) ten complete calendar years from January 1999 to December 2003 or (as far as) 2007 or 2008, as illustrated by the following example of the blue jay. Two histograms are given for the blue jay to illustrate the ongoing gathering of data on each species.

You may access each entry by clicking on the underlined bird names in the table below. NOTE that the histograms record the number of days on which a particular species has been recorded in each month during the observation period, and not the number of individual birds seen! The list reflects the birds likely to be encountered on local dog walks and other casual outings: a focused birding expedition would probably detect other species.

Bird Species of Seymour Township, southeast Ontario

Nineteen wild turkeys on a cold, sunny Saturday afternoon, near Campbellford, 15 January 2005.
Photo (c) F.T. Manns, 2005.

Footnote

Why these notes? How about the dictionary definition of phenology? I finally encountered the term via the Woodland Trust (U.K.) at Christmas 2001, and found out that it was a practice I'd adopted and maintained continuously, in an amateur capacity, since 1970...

Phenology, the study of natural phenomena that recur periodically, as migration, blossoming, etc, and of their relation to climate and changes in season.

For a monthly almanac of the year in nearby Peterborough county, with details on the changing weather, night skies, birds and animals, see a fine recent book by Drew Monkman, illustrated by Kimberly Caldwell (Monkman, 2002).

The following professional sources of bird information are especially recommended. LaForest (1993) details the year-round occurrence of birds at Presqu'ile provincial park, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, roughly 40 km south of Campbellford. Sadler (1983) wrote another excellent local reference, detailing the birds of Peterborough county, lying immemdiately north and northwest of Campbellford. A few notes on the wider region can be found in Goodwin (1995). For information on birds across Canada, see Godfrey (1979).

For an authoritative view of a particular species in the region, or anywhere else in southern Ontario, see Cadman et al. (1987, 2007), who compiled data from thousands of observers across the province, in two periods 1981-1985 and 2001-2005. Seymour township, apart from small areas in the northeast and northwest corners, comprises the majority of four 10-km squares in the Ontario Atlas. The 2x2 area of squares is approximately divided east-west by the first southward reach of the Trent downstream of Rice Lake, as seen on the atlas index maps. Two squares on the north side cover the area from Allan Mills west to the hamlet of Trent River, while a seventh square to the west covers the small area upstream (southwest) from Trent River. The geography of the area is covered in detail by NTS 1:50,000-scale map sheets 31 C/5 (Campbellford) and 31 C/4 (which includes the southwest corner of the township). Lastly, see Austen et al. (1994) for an informative review of the history and recent status of 58 species of birds across Ontario.

A great gray owl on 11th Line West of Seymour township, circa 16:30 hours, Friday 25th February 2005. The winter of 2004-2005 was notable for a sustained irruption of these large owls from the far north, and the intermittent appearance of other winter birds such as slate-coloured juncos, cedar waxwings and pine grosbeaks. Jan Wybourn photo.

References

AUSTEN,MJW, CADMAN,MD and JAMES,RD (1994) Ontario Birds at Risk: Status and Conservation Needs. Federation of Ontario Naturalists / Long Point Bird Observatory, 165pp.

CADMAN,MD, EAGLES,PFJ and HELLEINER,FM (1987) Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario. Federation of Ontario Naturalists and Long Point Bird Observatory, published by University of Waterloo Press, 617pp.

CADMAN,MD, SUTHERLAND,DA, BECK,GG, LEPAGE,D and COUTURIER,AR (editors) (2007) Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario, 2001-2005. Bird Studies Canada,Environment Canada,Ontario Field Ornithologists, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and Ontario Nature, 706pp.

GODFREY,WE (1979) The Birds of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa, 428pp.

GOODWIN,CE (1995) A Bird-Finding Guide to Ontario, revised and expanded edition, University of Toronto Press, 477pp. [Peterborough, Victoria and Northumberland counties are described (pp.208-225) and a few local sites mentioned, such as the Murray Marsh and Goodrich Loomis conservation area].

LaFOREST,SM (1993) Birds of Presqu'ile Provincial Park. Friends of Presqu'ile Park / Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 436pp.

MONKMAN,D (2002) Nature's Year in the Kawarthas: a Guide to the Unfolding Seasons. Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc., Toronto, 338pp.

SADLER,D (1983) Our Heritage of Birds: Peterborough County in the Kawarthas. Peterborough Field Naturalists / Orchid Press, Peterborough, ON, 192pp.