Many thanks to the 25 local and migratory birders
who covered 9 sectors of this beautiful piece of
the state, including the very skilled
sector-leaders Ann and Kevin Jennings, Sandy
Spencer and Larry Meade, Neil Losin, Dana
Bradshaw, Gary and Mona Enquist-Johnston, Adam
D'Onofrio and Mike Boatwright, Brad Davis, Arun
Bose, and Sue Heath. Special thanks to the 35
landowners who gave permission for us strangers
to bird at their farms, hunt clubs, waterfronts,
and backyards. Also great thanks to Dori
Chappell and Peg Babyak of Walkerton who over the
years have helped organize and cultivate so many
of the connections with landowners and birders of
the area.
As a result of their hard work, we found 97
species, well above our average of 85, but below
last year's maximum of 103. Most exciting birds
were a Golden Eagle and Merlin in the Elsing
Green/Pocket sector, 3 Snow Geese and 2 Rusty
Blackbirds in the Hanover/New Kent sector, Tree
Sparrow in the Walkerton sector, and Purple
Finches, Woodcocks, and our only Red-breasted
Nuthatch in the King William sector. The large
numbers of sparrows, carolina wrens, cardinals
and the record high of catbirds, showed that the
birders were very thorough in their counting of
the little birds that are often overlooked. Ducks
were hard to come by except in the areas
surrounding The Pocket, but Canada Geese were at
an all-time high. Bald Eagles continue to
maintain a healthy population here, with an
especially large number of immatures this year.
The abundance of holly berries gave a record high
for robins and a big increase of cedar waxwings
compared to last year. The windless pre-dawn
hours allowed us to hear a record high for
great-horned owl, and good numbers of barred and
screech owls. Other record highs for this CBC
were pied-billed grebe, great blue heron, tundra
swan, blue-winged teal, shoveler, gadwall,
ring-necked duck, bufflehead, ruddy duck, black
vulture, cooper's hawk, coot, rock pigeon,
phoebe, and red-winged blackbird. Surprising
misses included bobwhite, cormorant, lesser
scaup, herring gull, and white-crowned sparrow.
White-breasted nuthatch, wood duck, black duck,
hooded merganser, common merganser, wild turkey,
savannah sparrow, swamp sparrow, and junco seemed
to have significant declines this year. Here is
the complete list. Sorry for the delay in
getting it to you.
Pied-billed Grebe, 21, (previous high 14, average
6)
Great Blue Heron 58, (previous high 54, average
22)
Tundra Swan 119, (previous high 93, average 7)
Canada Goose 11,220. (Previous high 7690, average
2976)
Snow Goose 3 (2 blue) (Single birds seen in two
prior years)
Wood Duck 11, below average of 14 and max of 54
Green-winged Teal 218, way above average of 49
Blue-winged Teal 9, previous high 3
American Black Duck 14, way below ave of 70 and
max of 207
Mallard 269 (ave 207)
Pintail 430 (previous high 370, average 102)
Shoveler 16 (previous high 15, average 3)
Gadwall 128 (previous high 90, average 22)
American Wigeon 4
Ring-necked Duck 516 (previous high 348, average
113)
Bufflehead 77 (previous high 54, ave 29)
Hooded Merganser 12, scarce this year, below
average of 28.
Common Merganser only 1, way below average of 13
Ruddy Duck 99, (previous high 24, average 7)
Black Vulture 289 (previous high 205, ave 73) A
roost had ~180.
Turkey Vulture 199 (average = 180)
Bald Eagle 39, above average (19), with 23
immmatures.
Golden Eagle 1 immature with beautiful gold on
head and distinct white patches in wings and
tail. (4th time reported)
Northern Harrier 19, (previous high 10, average
6)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 5 (average = 5)
Cooper's Hawk 5 (previous high 3, average 1)
Red-shouldered Hawk 25, above average (14)
Red-tailed Hawk 33, above average (23)
Kestrel 9 (average = 9)
Merlin 1 adult (4th time reported)
Turkey only 8 seen in two sectors (average = 28)
Coot 75 (previous high 21, average 5, not seen
every year)
Killdeer 234, above average (118)
Greater Yellowlegs 37, abve average (9)
Lesser yellowlegs 7 (average = 3)
peep sp 10 too far, but not dunlin
Dunlin 105 (only third year noted, average = 20)
Dowitcher sp 4 silent, and too far to be sure
which species.
Wilson's Snipe 73, above average (55)
American Woodcock 4 (average = 3)
Ring-billed Gull 275 (average = 233)
Rock Pigeon 56 (previous high 27, ave 10)
Mourning Dove 468, above average (372)
Eastern Screech Owl 6, above average (3)
Great Horned Owl 25 (previous high 10, average 4)
Barred Owl 9, above average (5)
Belted Kingfisher 28, above average (18)
Red-headed Woodpecker 26, above average (11),
nice increase since last year's one bird
Red-bellied Woodpecker 67, above average (56)
Yellow-bellied sapsucker 38, above average (21)
Downy Woodpecker 56, above average (38)
Hairy Woodpecker 14 (average =12)
Northern FLicker 140, above average (97)
Pileated Woodpecker 45, above average (24)
Eastern Phoebe 32, (previous high 27, average 15)
Horned Lark 43 (average = 41)
Blue Jay 88 (average = 70)
American Crow 418, below average (481)
Crow sp 11
Carolina Chickadee 102, above average (84)
Tufted Titmouse 77, (average = 65)
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 (not seen every year)
White-breasted Nuthatch 19, dramatic decline from
last year's 58
below average (25)
Brown Creeper 14, second highest count ever,
(average = 6)Carolina Wren 130, above average
(68)
Winter Wren 20 (second highest ever, average =
10)
Golden-crowned Kinglet 56 (average = 47)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 24, below average (30)
Eastern Bluebird 169 (average = 180)
Hermit Thrush 33, above average (22)
Amercian Robin 4480, new high, lots of holly
berries (previous high was 3362, average was
1098.
Gray Catbird 7, previous high 4, average 1
Northern Mockingbird 31, below average (43)
Brown Thrasher 10 (average = 7)
American Pipit 122 but spotty distribution,
(average = 70)
Cedar Waxwing 458, nice change since last year's
28 birds (average = 353)
European Starling 654 (average 579)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 157, nice change since last
year's 39 birds. (average = 102)
Pine Warbler 3 (average 2, not seen every year)
Cardinal 210, above average (165), but this is a
big drop since last year's 493 birds.
Eastern towhee 46, above average (26)
Chipping Sparrow 24 (average =13)
Field Sparrow 28 (average = 27)
Tree Sparrow 1, only seen once before.
Savannah Sparrow 21, dramatic drop from last
year's 55, (ave = 24)
Fox Sparrow 12, ties previous high (average = 5)
Song Sparrow 334, above average (220)
Swamp Sparrow 26, below average (39)
White-throated Sparrow 1074, above average (787),
a third of them in one sector.
Dark-eyed Junco 373 below average (584)
Red-winged Blackbird about 14,407
Blackbird sp. rough estimate of a stream of
150,000 birds flying along the Pamunkey River at
dusk; appeared to be about 90% redwings and 10 %
grackles
Rusty Blackbird 2 only the third time seen on
this count.
Eastern Meadowlark 63 (average = 74)
Common Grackle 12,896
Brown-headed Cowbird, 22, hard to find this year.
Purple Finch 9 (8 in one sector) Only the third
time found on this count.
House Finch 41 (average = 46)
American Goldfinch 125 (average = 103)
House Sparrow 11 (average = 23)
To those of you who participated, THANK YOU VERY
MUCH! I will send the more complete list with the
break-down by sectors and the comparison with
other years after I enter the data at the Audubon
CBC site.
Please let me know if you would like to help next
year.
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
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