2019 Christmas Bird Count

2019 OKC Audubon CBC Results

OKC Audubon conducted its annual CBC on Saturday Dec 14 and we had 26 count teams and 50 participants in the field including six new participants! A couple of our perineal teams were not able to participate but we look forward to their contributions next year!

A few participants were ambitious and conducted owling and were treated to temps in the mid-40s with very light southwesterly winds. However, shortly after sunrise a frontal boundary rolled through and winds switched all the around to the northeast sustained at ~10 mph for the rest of the day. The daytime low barely dipped below 40 degrees but the sun finally came out by mid-afternoon where it moderated back up into the mid-40s. Our efforts comprised of 113 party-hours and 289 miles walked/driven resulted in an impressive 115 species and a total of 47,951 birds.

Several species were extra noteworthy based on range and/or season as a Lesser Goldfinch amazingly spotted by the Holbrook/Hacker team tops the list! White-winged Scoter, Red-necked Grebe, American Woodcock and Franklin’s Gull (3) round out the top five rarities.

Trends also continue to be monitored which includes almost being shut-out on Common Mergansers if not for the heroics of Matt Jung. However, on the flip side, the Shackford team found an impressive flock of nine Chipping Sparrows and along those lines a total of 15 Eastern Phoebes were tallied from 10 separate count teams. Limited shoreline/mudfats at Hefner and Overholser likely contributed to missing on Least Sandpiper and being down on Killdeer.

Other impressive birds and/or numbers include 819 American White Pelicans, 14 Great Egrets, 13 Marsh Wrens (Kuhnert team found eight on the north side of Overholser). Also noteworthy were five Killdeer found at a pond by the Brueggen/Steward team and Brian Marra added an impressive Count Week bird (Surf Scoter) on Dec 15.

I look forward to our club’s monthly meeting on Jan 27 (7 pm) at the Will Rogers Garden Center to give a brief summary and answer questions about the Count. Ed Godfrey of The Oklahoman wrote a really nice story (link below) on this year’s Count- https://oklahoman.com/article/5649931/christmas-comes-early-for-oklahoma-city-birders

Participants include Steve Davis, Mary Lane; Bill Diffin, Chase Moxley; Carla Bruggen, Feodora Steward; Neil Garrison, Danny Odom; Mark Howery, Sharon Henthorn; Patti Muzny, Nancy Vicars, Brian Munzy; Hal Yocum, Cheryl Allen; Brian Marra, Deanne McKinney, Grace Huffman; Betz Hacker, Robert Holbrook; Jerry Taylor, Marilyn Taylor; John Sterling; Larry Mays, Aaron Mechem, Jennie Brooks; Morton Payne, Matthew Payne, Johnson Hightower, Steve Parker; John Shackford, Warren Harden, Jack Tyler, Terri Underhill; Jimmy Woodard, Mark DelGrosso, Nadine Varner; Patricia Velte; Jacob Crissup, Jerry Vanbebber; James Hubbell and nephew, Lisa Hubbell; Matt Jung; Nathan Kuhnert, Susan Prescott, Kathleen Tucker, Janiece Gratch, Janet Combs, and Cynthia Barnes and kudos to John Shackford for organizing the wonderful compilation dinner at Johnnie’s in Edmond.

The complete list is below. Thank you for making this a very special Count!

Nathan Kuhnert, Compiler

2019 Christmas Bird Count Species List