The National Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) began in 1900 as a way to count rather than kill birds. 2021 marks the 122th National Audubon CBC. For UMBA it is our 48th CBC. 26 participants rallied to tally the avian species and their numbers on a cloudy, cool and increasingly windy day. 2 folks called in the count from their bird feeder again this year. We invite more folks to send me their bird feeder lists on CBC day! We sure hope that more people will be able to join us next year! Covid once again kept our participant numbers down. Happy holidays to all of you!
For the birds!
Nora Gray
We spied 57 species on Count Day (December 18th this year) and 4 during Count Week (3 days prior to and 3 days after Count Day).
Species followed by a number = a Count Day sighting + number counted. CW = Count Week species, but we can’t count the numbers seen outside of Count Day.
Not surprisingly, Canada Geese topped the chart: 15,327, followed by Mallards: 2093. Bald Eagles were active and seen everywhere. A frozen river and duck hunting season can provide an attractive amount of food items for a Bald Eagle. Bald Eagles will consume large numbers of injured waterfowl – we hope that hunters are using lead-free shot. The lone Junco was seen in a horse corral (an odd place for a junco). Most of the Cackling Geese were in one flock found by Wayne Phillips and his counting crew. Some years few or no Common Redpolls and Rough-legged Hawks are seen. This year was a good year for both species.
Cackling Geese: 174 Tundra Swan: 2 Northern Pintail: 1
Canvasback: 2 Redhead: 42 Ring-necked Duck: 4
Lesser Scaup: 22 Bufflehead: 416 Common Goldeneye: 1499
Barrow’s Goldeneye: 61 Hooded Merganser: 9 Red-Breasted Merganser: CW
Ruddy Duck: 8 Gray Partridge (Hun): 3 Sharp-tailed Grouse: 13
Wild Turkey: 184 Pied-billed Grebe: 1 Eared Grebe: CW
Bald Eagle: 55 Northern Harrier: 8 Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1
Red-tailed hawk: 5 Harlan’s Hawk: 2 Rough-legged Hawk: 44
Golden Eagle: 4 American Kestrel: 2 Merlin: 2
Prairie Falcon: 2 American Coot: 552 Ring-billed Gull: CW
Rock Pigeon: 991 Eurasian-collared Dove: 258 Mourning Dove: 1
Great Horned Owl: 1 Belted Kingfisher: 1 Downy Woodpecker: 8
No. Flicker(unkn.sp): 23 No. Red-shafted Flicker: 26 Northern Shrike: 3
Black-billed Magpie: 248 American Crow: 43 Common Raven: 10
Horned Lark: 112 Black-cap.Chickadee: 155 Red-breasted Nuthatch: 4
White-breasted Nuthatch: 1 Brown Creeper: 1 Townsend’s Solitaire: 1
American Robin: 8 European Starling: 804 Bohemian Waxwing: CW
American Tree Sparrow: 32 Dark-eyed (Slate)Junco: 1 House Finch: 473
Common Redpoll: 37 American Goldfinch: 31 House Sparrow: 1825
Chipping Sparrow: 3 American White Pelican: CW Common Merganser: 9
Ring-necked Pheasant: 118 Song Sparrow: CW Unknown Duck sp.: 1
Unknown Buteo sp.: 4 Unknown Falcon sp.: 1