The Northern Nassau Christmas Count was held on Saturday, December 21st, the winter solstice. Although it was the shortest day of the year, 80 observers braved temperatures in the 50s and found a near-record 117 species.
Three species were new to the count: Lesser Yellowlegs—a single bird found in Manhasset and photographed standing next to the only Greater Yellowlegs found on the count. What are the odds? If there was such thing as a Medium Yellowlegs, I’m sure it would have been standing between them. Seaside Sparrow--- a superbly photographed individual found at Caumsett SP by the same observer who found a count first Nelson’s Sparrow last year in the same location. Black Guillemot---a remarkable find of a continuing individual found on the eastern side of Hempstead Harbor. Probably the first record for western (or all of) Long Island Sound. This brings the cumulative number of species seen on this count to 198. Perhaps next year some lucky individual will find our 200th species. With Razorbill and Black Guillemot already on the list.......maybe Dovekie will be number 200...... Other rarities found included 2 Greater White-fronted Geese (3rd count ever, 2 out of last 3) Cackling Goose (2nd count ever, last 2 counts) 2 Barrow’s Goldeneyes (4th count ever, all singles until now). King Eider (3rd count ever, 2 out of last 3) 2 Eurasian Wigeons 3 Bald Eagles (4th count ever, all singles until now) Red-headed Woodpecker (5th count ever, 1st since 2002). Horned Lark (1st since 1998) Vesper Sparrow (1st since 1994) New high counts were achieved for many species including Canada Goose (14677), Ruddy Duck (1388), Red-tailed Hawk (60), Merlin (7), Red-bellied Woodpecker (218), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (33, shattering the old record of 19), Carolina Wren (194), American Pipit (5), and Song Sparrow (474). How we can find 474 Song Sparrows but only 182 House Sparrows is a mystery to me, but I’m not complaining. House Sparrows were down 65% of their 10-year average. Rock Pigeons were down 72%; we only counted 143. Really? Did we just ignore these nuisance species this year or did the warm weather push all counters deeper into the woods? Hmmm...... Also, in case you were wondering about our spiraling Canada Goose numbers, the Montezuma, NY Christmas Count recorded 51, 239 on last year’s count (the most in the United States). However, I think most of these were true migratory geese and not the feral slobs we have here in Nassau. If only we could tax them. 6864 Greater Scaup was below the 5-year average of 14,000 but they could easily have been in neighboring waters outside our count circle. There were only a very few number of species that could be considered as “misses” for our count, namely, Black-crowned Night Heron, Purple Sandpiper (seen count week), Chipping Sparrow, & Purple Finch. After 3 years in a row, Common Raven was absent from our count. Count week birds included 6 Razorbills, Purple Sandpiper, & Lesser Black-backed Gull. Red-throated & Common Loons were down 89% & 64%, respectively, from their 10 year averages but Horned Grebe was way up with 134 seen. Most ducks were up but especially Common Goldeneye (up 135% of its 10 year average). Long-tailed Duck was actually down a bit. Both of our resident owls (Great Horned & Screech) were found in normal numbers. Everyone had high hopes that a Snowy Owl would be found this year, given the numbers that they have appeared in on Long Island this winter. However, our count circle is probably the least likely area to find this bird on Long Island and the odds prevailed. 2 American Kestrels were found this year, an admirable achievement these days but to see that they were outnumbered by Merlins better than 3 to 1 is truly astounding. In 1973, we recorded 27 kestrels on our count (and 2 Merlins). A few area counts conducted in the prior weeks remarked on the paucity of Black-capped Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse. However, both species were found in numbers representative of their 5, 10, & 20 year averages. In fact, almost all landbirds were near or higher than their averages. Some exceptions to this included lower than average numbers of both kinglets, White-throated Sparrow, & Dark-eyed Junco. Some numbers to leave you dizzy: This year, we saw about 45,000 individuals which matches the average for the last 5 years. The 10 & 20 year averages are about 36,000 & 32,000, respectively. Much of this volume can be attributed to a handful of species. Removing just 5 high-volume species (Canada Goose, Greater Scaup, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Starling) dropped the total from 45,000 to 17,000. However, 17,000 is well above the 5, 10, 20 year averages so it seems like we’re seeing more birds on our count. Whether this is due to more participants, weather, or some other factor is up to the Audubon folks to figure out. And finally, some useless stats from the spreadsheet: Only 22 out of 198 species have been recorded on our count one time ever. Only 31 out of 198 species have been recorded on every single count. Enough of this drivel, Happy New Year to all!!!!!! --Glenn Quinn, compiler --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
