The 91st Montauk Christmas Bird Count was conducted on Saturday, December 19th. This year marked the 100th anniversary of the Montauk Count, which first took place in 1920.
Forty-three participants in five areas counted 130 species during the count week, and 129 on the count day. This represents our second-highest total over the last ten years, only eclipsed by 132 species in 2012. Seawatchers benefitted from calm winds and lack of precipitation, and duck numbers were relatively strong with large bodies of fresh water unfrozen. But the snow that coated the area Wednesday and Thursday lingered on, contributing to the absence of several regular passerines like Orange-crowned Warbler and Common Yellowthroat. Highlights included the first count record of *Wood Thrush *in the Point North area, the continuing *Painted Bunting* previously discovered by Aidan Perkins near Culloden Point (third count record), a male *Barrow's Goldeneye *off the eastern coast of Gardiner's Island (fourth count record), and a flyover *Western Kingbird* near Montauk Downs Golf Course (sixth count record). *Evening Grosbeak* (sixteenth count record) was recorded for the first time since 2001, with teams observing single birds near the Montauk Airport and Camp Hero State Park. Otherwise, finch totals were surprisingly low for an irruption year: only three Red Crossbills, eleven Common Redpoll, five Purple Finches, and zero Pine Siskins were recorded. A *White-winged Crossbill* was observed along East Lake Drive the Friday before the count. Montauk regularly records several species that are unusual elsewhere on Long Island, and this year was no different. *Yellow-breasted Chat* was seen for the seventh time in the last ten years, *Dovekie* for the fourth time in ten years, and *Rough-legged Hawk* for the tenth time in ten years. Similarly, certain population trends prevalent elsewhere on Long Island remain absent in Montauk. For instance, American Crow numbers remain high (480) while Fish Crow went unrecorded for the third consecutive year. In addition, new high counts were set for Hooded Merganser (209), Sanderling (1159), Bald Eagle (19), Northern Saw-whet Owl (15), Hairy Woodpecker (21), Common Raven (6), and Carolina Wren (313). Our deepest thanks to all participants for joining us and to the area leaders for organizing coverage despite the challenges of COVID. Though the Zoom compilation proceeded smoothly, I know we all hope to return to a traditional in-person compilation next year. For those interested, the 2021 Count will take place on Saturday, December 18, 2021. Co-Compilers Brent Bomkamp Angus Wilson -- 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/ --
