The 72nd Quogue Water Mill Christmas Bird Count -- on eastern Long Island -- took place on Sunday, December 20, 2020. Twenty-seven searchers covered the five sectors within the count circle, tallying 14,990 individual birds of 113 species. Another three species were recorded during count week. Species diversity compared well with previous Quogue Water Mill CBCs, comfortably exceeding the count average (95.8 species) since its beginnings in 1949. The number of observed individuals, however, continues a troubling trend: the last four years have tallied the four lowest counts over the past forty-five years. A number of interesting birds were recorded on December 20th, including: Harlequin Duck (17th time on the count) Great Egret (19th time, all sightings since 1994) Bald Eagle (16th time, including the past 12 years) Clapper Rail (35th) Virginia Rail (14th) Red Knot (17th) Laughing Gull (14th) Snowy Owl (17th) Northern Saw-Whet Owl (4th) Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker (21st time, all sightings since 1983) Common Raven (8th time, all sightings since 2012) Marsh Wren (14th) Eastern Bluebird (22nd) Common Yellowthroat (23rd) Chipping Sparrow (19th) Red Crossbill (13th) Pine Siskin (29th) The vast majority of expected species were found on December 20th. Among the few tough misses were Eastern Meadowlark (missed for just the 6th time) and American Kestrel (8th year not recorded). Other birds regularly recorded on the Quogue Water Mill Count, but not found during the 2020 rendition: Northern Pintail, American Bittern, Wilson’s Snipe, Brown Thrasher, and Brown-Headed Cowbird. Thank you to all who helped out last Sunday. A full report of the 2020 Quogue Water Mill Count will be ready for distribution within the next week; please contact me via e-mail if you would like to receive a copy. The next Quogue Water Mill CBC is tentatively scheduled for December 19, 2021. Steve Biasetti
-- 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/ --
