2014 Christmas Bird Count Comments
Thanks to the 47 people who participated on this year’s OCAS Christmas Bird Count (CBC). It was a great effort by a great group of people. I feel privileged to be a part of it.
We had an excellent count: 116 species. This was one more than the 115 I was shooting for; I had lowered our sights a bit from the 120 species we used to shoot for because we have lost so much field habitat to urban habitat. My particular thanks to those whose area was heavily weighted with urban habitat, not always the most exciting or easiest habitat to survey. But excellent birds still show up there.
Some of the CBC specialties were 2 Ross’s Goose (Patti and Brian Muzny, great find and careful ID, with photos); 5 Wild Turkey (Feodora Steward and Carla Brueggan, wonderful); 2 Bald Eagle (John Sterling party, excellent); 1 Ferruginous Hawk (Muzny party, great find); 1 Rough-legged Hawk (Shackford party, Jack Tyler and Warren Harden, outstanding); 1 Prairie Falcon (Jimmy Woodard party, yes!); 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larry Mays Party, our unbelievable “usual”); 6 White-winged Dove (2 Cheryl Allen Party, 1 Marion Homier party, 3 Esther Key party, great to see them in several places), 1 Greater Roadrunner (Dave Woodson party by their son Matt Woodson); 4 Eastern Screech-Owl (3 John Bates party, thanks for getting up in the middle of the night to do this John!, 1 Larry Mays party, the most Eastern Screech-Owls we have ever tallied I believe); 3 Hairy Woodpecker (2 Shackford party, 1 Woodard party, this species has gotten down to very low numbers in our count area); 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch (Allen party—great feeder watching Cheryl!); 2 Hermit Thrush (Esther Key party, great work Esther!, John Bates party, great work Bill Diffin!); 6 Brown Thrasher (1 Bates party, 2 Shackford party, 3 Woodard party—a Brown Thrasher year); 2 Eastern Towhee (Ernie Wilson party, outstanding Ernie); 4 LeConte’s Sparrow (Mays party—good show!); 30 Brewer’s Blackbird (Muzny party, always an excellent find); 7 Smith’s Longspur (3 Muzny party, 4 Woodard party, thanks for keeping us hanging in there on longspurs, guys), and 2 Purple Finch (Mays party, yeahhh).
Special thanks to Diane Newell for hosting our after count Tally Party, and to her friend Sally Coates for helping Diane prepare for the party. It was a warm, cozy home after a quite dreary day of bird counting. We are always very thankful for such a fun way to end our day.
John Shackford, Compiler
| Species | # Birds |
| Ross’s Goose | 2 |
| Cackling Goose | 452 |
| Canada Goose | 3330 |
| Wood Duck | 18 |
| Gadwall | 490 |
| American Wigeon | 74 |
| Mallard | 2735 |
| Northern Shoveler | 264 |
| Northern Pintail | 115 |
| Green-winged Teal | 64 |
| Canvasback | 119 |
| Redhead | 100 |
| Ring-necked Duck | 79 |
| Lesser Scaup | 120 |
| Bufflehead | 54 |
| Common Goldeneye | 47 |
| Hooded Merganser | 125 |
| Common Merganser | 76 |
| Red-breasted Merganser | 465 |
| Ruddy Duck | 62 |
| Duck (sp.) | 15 |
| Wild Turkey | 5 |
| Common Loon | 19 |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 56 |
| Horned Grebe | 25 |
| Eared Grebe | 7 |
| American White Pelican | 334 |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 3396 |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | 8 |
| Great Blue Heron | 130 |
| Great Egret | 8 |
| Bald Eagle | 2 |
| Northern Harrier | 2 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 2 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 16 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 22 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 84 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 1 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 1 |
| American Kestrel | 36 |
| Merlin | 1 |
| Prairie Falcon | 1 |
| American Coot | 141 |
| Killdeer | 7 |
| Greater Yellowlegs | 30 |
| Least Sandpiper | 9 |
| Wilson’s Snipe | 2 |
| Franklin’s Gull | 1 |
| Bonaparte’s Gull | 287 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 6480 |
| Herring Gull | 86 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 1 |
| Gull (sp.) | 7 |
| Forster’s Tern | 5 |
| Rock Pigeon | 2080 |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | 303 |
| White-winged Dove | 6 |
| Mourning Dove | 139 |
| Greater Roadrunner | 1 |
| Eastern Screech-Owl | 4 |
| Great Horned Owl | 12 |
| Barred Owl | 3 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 20 |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 50 |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 3 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 67 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 3 |
| Northern Flicker | 131 |
| (Yellow-shafted Flicker) | 7 |
| (Red-shafted Flicker) | 1 |
| Eastern Phoebe | 1 |
| Blue Jay | 219 |
| American Crow | 146 |
| Carolina Chickadee | 175 |
| Tufted Titmouse | 27 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 1 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 4 |
| Brown Creeper | 8 |
| Carolina Wren | 67 |
| Bewick’s Wren | 1 |
| Winter Wren | 2 |
| Marsh Wren | 3 |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 10 |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 29 |
| Eastern Bluebird | 102 |
| American Robin | 3211 |
| Hermit Thrush | 2 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 129 |
| Brown Thrasher | 6 |
| European Starling | 4765 |
| American Pipit | 19 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 156 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 66 |
| Spotted Towhee | 46 |
| Eastern Towhee | 2 |
| American Tree Sparrow | 2 |
| Field Sparrow | 11 |
| Savannah Sparrow | 25 |
| Le Conte’s Sparrow | 4 |
| Fox Sparrow | 42 |
| Song Sparrow | 91 |
| Lincoln’s Sparrow | 11 |
| Swamp Sparrow | 5 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 40 |
| Harris’s Sparrow | 423 |
| White-crowned Sparrow | 73 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 485 |
| Smith’s Longspur | 7 |
| Longspur (sp.) | 50 |
| Northern Cardinal | 317 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 684 |
| Meadowlark (sp) | 203 |
| Eastern Meadowlark | 1 |
| Brewer’s Blackbird | 30 |
| Common Grackle | 62 |
| Great-tailed Grackle | 261 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 4 |
| Purple Finch | 2 |
| House Finch | 135 |
| Pine Siskin | 3 |
| American Goldfinch | 346 |
| House Sparrow | 392 |
| Total Species | 116 |
| Total # of Birds | 35754 |
| Additional species count week | 0 |
| Additional subsp. Or forms | 1 |
| Total Party Hours | 120 |
| –Party Hours (Foot) | 75.5 |
| –Party Hours (Car) | 43 |
| “–Party Hours (Kayak) | 1.5 |
| Total Party Miles | 519.5 |
| –Party Miles (Foot) | 46.5 |
| –Party Miles (Car) | 471 |
| “–Party Miles (Kayak) | 2 |
| Total (Party) Owling Hours | 2.5 |
| –Owling Hours (Foot) | 2.5 |
| –Owling Hours (Car) | |
| Total (Party) Owling Miles | 1 |
| –Owling Miles (Foot) | |
| –Owling Miles (car) | 1 |
| Total (Party) Feeder Hours | 6 |
| Total Observers (Feeder Only) | 3 |
| Total Parties | 18 |
| Total Observers (Field) | 44 |
| Total Obervers | 47 |