Hi Everyone, After the first week of December, the 2024-2025 Ontario winter bird list stands at 167 species. December started on a weekend so the first few days we got lots of species. Last year at this time we had recorded 174 species and we were talking about the Feildfare. Interesting birds seen so far include Red Phalarope, and Western Cattle Egret. The Red Phalarope was found by Liam Thorne in Hamilton. The Western Cattle Egrets were seen near Kopegaron Woods in Essex County. These Western Cattle Egrets have been in this spot for awhile. Like all years we are still missing some common species. One of the missing species is Spruce Grouse. We were missing Spruce Grouse at this time last year. Interestingly, we do have Sharp-tailed Grouse. Some other species missing are Savannah Sparrow, and Harris's Sparrow. With the Christmas Bird Counts starting soon we will hopefully be filling in these gaps. Winter Listers can also keep track of what's being seen in the Ontario Birds Discord Server which can be found here:(https://discord.ggEhvgAc2fwb <https://discord.gg/EhvgAc2fwb>)) or the OFO discord server (https://discord.cominvite/npbCzXVhZ2 <https://discord.com/invite/npbCzXVhZ2>). If you are interested in going out on an organized group trip, the OFO is running these winter trips: - Toronto Lakeshore (Field) - the Dec. 15 session is full but there is another session on Dec. 21 - Young Birds Camp '24 (Zoom)- Jan. 8, 2025 - Winter Birds of the Detroit River: Windsor (Field) - Jan 11, 2025 A link to the OFO trip site is here <http://www.ofo.ca/site/tripsupcoming> (you will need to scroll down a bit to see the trips). If you register do not forget to make a note to yourself so you remember when the events are. I hope everyone at the Niagara Gull weekend is having fun! The OFO also has tips on how to find winter birds here <http://www.ofo.ca/content/winter-birding/tips>. The winter list can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/myyulvs. I try to update the spreadsheet every couple of days or whenever I hear of a new addition. Please let me know if you hear of a new addition or any other correction to the spreadsheet. Have a nice weekend, Todd Hagedorn