On Saturday, December 19, the Northern Nassau CBC was held. The count covers the area north of an arc cut through Manhasset, Old Westbury, Hicksville, Woodbury, and Cold Spring Harbor. We tallied a respectable 107 species between us.
Recent heavy snowfall in the area and the first sustained freezing temperatures of the season meant that conditions were challenging for participants: crunchy snow, ice, and 16 degrees Fahrenheit before dawn, but thankfully little wind chill. Waterfowl were similarly affected. Despite being seen at least 7 out of the last 10 years, Northern Shoveler, Common Merganser, and American Coot could not be found, and Brant and Gadwall numbers were at their 10-year lows. The other 10-year low was a single Ruby-crowned Kinglet, which often seems to be one of the first half-hardies to go in such conditions. Purple Sandpiper, Northern Gannet, Great Cormorant, and Pine Warbler were all bad misses, but not as bad as Brown-headed Cowbird and Brown Thrasher, which had not been missed in at least 10 years. On the other hand, adverse conditions to our north may have resulted in some high counts. Canada Goose hit its 10-year high with over 12,000 individuals tallied. No Cackling Geese were found, despite having encountered them on 6 out of the 10 last NN CBCs. 27 Horned Lark and 6 American Pipit were also 10-year highs, as was 28 Hermit Thrush. Other 10-year highs were 596 White-winged Scoter, 31 Black Scoter, 151 Great Black-backed Gull, 82 Double-crested Cormorant, 8 Northern Harrier, and 37 Common Raven. The highlight birds for the count circle, and their frequency out of the last 10 years, were as follows: Snow Goose (4/10) Lattingtown Common Eider (1/10) Lattingtown and Lloyd Neck Iceland Gull (0/10) Lattingtonw Red-shouldered Hawk (2/10) Syosset Northern Saw-whet Owl (2/10) American Kestrel (3/10) Port Washington Horned Lark (2/10) Lattingtown and Lloyd Neck American Pipit (4/10) Port Washington Pine Siskin (4/10) Mill Neck Common Redpoll (0/10) Albertson and Syosset Baltimore Oriole (1/10) Bayville Orange-crowned Warbler (4/10) Lloyd Neck Our compilation meeting was virtual this year. Thank you to all the participants for braving the weather, figuring out access and safety logistics, and sharing a day of beautiful, wintry nature. Special thanks to my co-compilers: Glenn Quinn, Jennifer WIlson-Pines, and Stephane Perrault. Please don't hesitate to reach out to any of us if you want to become involved with the 2021 count! Season's greetings, Brendan Fogarty -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
