The SE Clayton Co. Christmas Bird Count was held on Monday, January 2nd. This was arguably the most bizarre Christmas Bird Count I've ever participated on. The temperature held fairly constant throughout the day, not ranging much from 15F for owling at 530 AM to 20F in the early afternoon. There was a small squall of snow early in the AM that produced near blizzard like conditions in the upland areas. The snowfall didn't last long and did not accumulate, though the winds were sustained near 30 MPH for much of the day and only began dying off in the final couple hours of sunlight with clearing skies as the day progressed. Owling in the AM was a disaster and only relatively possible in the floodplain or east/west oriented valleys. Passerines were lackluster for most of the day and response to taping was VERY poor. The Mississippi River was about 75% open, with a fair amount of spotty ice cover above the dam (the 2nd most open river for this count). Waterfowl saved this count from certain disaster; the previous high count for waterfowl species was 3. There have been seasons where we have found NO waterfowl! This year, we recorded 13(!) species of waterfowl (plus Coot) and set a new record high tally for this CBC at 59 species! Eight (8) species were new to the count, mostly waterfowl, and record highs were set for 11 additional species, again, largely waterfowl. Surprisingly enough, we tallied significantly better numbers of most passerine species than the weather conditions indicated early on, likely attributed to additional field coverage this year (3 field parties). I'll reiterate again however, that this was probably the most bizarre CBC I've ever participated on! I will post the species list below and add commentary or averages for reference.
Danny [email protected] 30 Cackling Geese1906(!) Canada Geese (only 4th count where CANG has been found, previous tallies were 161, 4, and 2)36 Trumpeter Swans348(!) TUNDRA SWANS 2 Gadwall 5 American Wigeon20(!) American Black Ducks480 Mallards (previous high was 3!)2 Canvasback1 Lesser Scaup 3 Common Goldeneye39 Common Mergansers3 Red-breasted Mergansers1 Wild Turkey (Average: 49)1 Great Blue Heron (amazingly enough, this was a first for this count!) 129 Bald Eagles (2nd highest tally behind 131, Average: 74)2 Sharp-shinned Hawks1 Cooper's Hawk27 Red-tailed Hawks (right at the average)3 Rough-legged Hawks (Average: 8) 4(!) Golden Eagles (record high, 3 of which (2 ad./1 imm.) were observed soaring at one location!)6 American Kestrels (Average: 9)2 American Coots (record high)87 Rock Pigeons9 Mourning Doves (well below the average of 35) 2 Eastern Screech-Owls (picked up at a traditional location at 630 PM when winds were nearly non-existent)1 Great Horned Owl1 Barred Owl3 Belted Kingfishers2 Red-headed Woodpeckers (a hit or miss species) 34 Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Average: 36)1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker39 Downy Woodpeckers (Average: 44)17 Hairy Woodpeckers (Above the average of 11)4 Northern Flickers 5 Pileated Woodpeckers (above average)50 Blue Jays (below average of 77)384 American Crows (above average of 229)140 Black-capped Chickadees (just below the average, record high is 239)12 Tufted Titmice (well below the average of 33 and the record high of 79) 88 White-breasted Nuthatches (above average of 79, record high is 137)6 Brown Creepers (just below average)1 Winter Wren1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 20 Eastern Bluebirds (above the average of 13, good showing considering how few thrushes I've seen on CBCs this season) 1 American Robin153 European Starlings (well below the average of 302)2 Cedar Waxwings125 American Tree Sparrows (above the average of 78)20 Song Sparrows (well above the average of 10, and not surprisingly, all at Mississippi River locations) 4 Swamp Sparrows (tied the record high and only previous observation from 2 years ago)602 Dark-eyed Juncos (record high and well above the average of 313)156 Northern Cardinals (above the average of 123)12 Red-winged Blackbirds (record high, previous tallies of 7, 4, and 1)3 Common Grackles (record high, 1 on the 07-08 count was the only previous record) 6 Purple Finches (about average)40 House Finches (below average of 52)72 American Goldfinches (below average of 106)555 House Sparrows (above average of 389) --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
