Bill and Jack Balkwill's farm is within the Cedar Creek Christmas Bird Count circle which was established twenty years ago to census the Town of Essex American Crow roost as well as other winter bird populations within a fifteen mile diameter from Cedar Creek.
CBC'ers Marg and Clary Calder, Denise Hartley and Betty Learmouth arrived at the Balkwill farm shortly after 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 18, 2004. Luckily, Bill and Jack were outside and kindly guided the CBC'ers to the potentially best areas for finding winter birds.
Dogwood shrubs adjacent to the pond/prairie restoration site yielded a flock of Tree Sparrows. Movement overhead which caught our attention proved to be a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers and a Downy Woodpecker. Grain in the woodland had attracted Mourning Doves. Unfortunately, no Eastern Bluebirds were recorded during our visit but we did record two White-breasted Nuthatches seen earlier in the day by the Balkwill brothers as well as making a note to remember that a Northern Harrier and Sharp-shinned Hawk had been observed earlier in the count week (CW).
The following in a summary of the birds seen during the two hour visit. These observations were included in the overall Cedar Creek CBC record of 80 species observed for the day.
| Species | Number |
|---|---|
| Northern Harrier | 1 (CW) |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 (CW) |
| Ring-billed Gull | 4 |
| Mourning Dove | 23 |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 2 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 1 |
| Blue Jay | 2 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 2 |
| Northern Cardinal | 4 |
| American Tree Sparrow | 17 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 3 |