Monday, December 23, 2013

December 21st "Winter Wildcard "

Early morning Snowy Owl gathering, photo by Oona Stern
Leader : Peter Dorosh

Hilight : 6 SNOWY OWLS, 4 together +1 in one location; last bird in another location


date = 2013/12/21
sites =  noted at a later date
observers = BBC
Snow Bunting, photo by Oona Stern
Common Loon Red-throated Loon Horned Grebe Northern Gannet Double-crested Cormorant Great Cormorant Bufflehead Canada Goose Black Scoter Long-tailed Duck Greater Scaup Red-breasted Merganser White-winged Scoter Brant Surf Scoter Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Northern Harrier
Photo by Heydi Lopes
Peregrine Falcon American Kestrel Sanderling Dunlin Purple Sandpiper Great Black-backed Gull Bonaparte's Gull Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Snowy Owl 6 Northern Flicker Horned Lark Ruby-crowned Kinglet Northern Mockingbird European Starling American Pipit Yellow-rumped Warbler Snow Bunting Song Sparrow American Tree Sparrow Lapland Longspur House Sparrow
Photo by Heydi Lopes

American Crow 
Brown-headed Cowbird 

 House Finch heard

White-throated Sparrow 
 American Robin 






Gallery of Snowy Owls

All photos taken by Heydi Lopes












Thursday, December 19, 2013

114th Christmas Bird Count -Kings

Cackling Geese (two lower birds) photo by Karen O'Hearn

PROSPECT LIST at bottom



Kings County (Brooklyn) CBC PRELIMINARY results December 14th 

To the birding community:

Below are the results for Kings County Christmas Birding Count Circle.

In the lowest count since 1981, with inclement snowy weather a factor among other things, 110 species were recorded.

Reflecting the historic irruption of Snowy Owl this winter, it showed with a record 15 birds ( including five seen in a restricted landfill area) , smashing the previous high of 4 ( I think from 1937).

Most evident was a shocking drop in Black-capped Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse numbers along with several other winter resident species which also evident in todays' Central Park (NYC)  figures.

Please note the numbers below for Kings CBC are not final, or preliminary due to still ongoing count week and subject to revised figures.

Thanks to compiler Rick Cech for his tireless effort compiling and keeping/maintaining the records , assisted by Paul Keim assisting on count night, Mary Eyster  organizing the CBC teams, Heidi Nanz setting up dinner prep and the countless members and birders helping out in any fashion. And as well thanks to the Prospect Park Alliance for use of their gorgeous venue ,the Audubon Boathouse.Anyone we forgot to mention, the Brooklyn Bird Club thank them for their voluntary effort.

 Happy Holidays to all, and a New Year  full of great birds.

--Peter

We had 28 new low counts (11 of which were all-time), versus 8 high counts (3 all-time).
Brooklyn XMas Count Annual Report: 2013
Bold = All time high / low
Italic = 10-year high/low
Low count stats exclude miss years
Species
#
Snow Goose
130
Brant
15723
Cackling Goose
2
NEW FOR COUNT
Canada Goose
1607
Mute Swan
171
Wood Duck
10
IRR; ALL-TIME HIGH (by almost 4x)
Gadwall
126
American Wigeon
126
American Black Duck
732
Mallard
888
10-yr hi
Northern Shoveler
484
Northern Pintail
2
Green-winged Teal
98
Canvasback
2
All-time low (tie)
Greater Scaup
1778
Lesser Scaup
81
Surf Scoter
46
White-winged Scoter
19
Black Scoter
64
Scoter (sp.)
2
Long-tailed Duck
249
Bufflehead
621
Common Goldeneye
11
Hooded Merganser
109
All-time high
Red-breasted Merganser
571
Ruddy Duck
279
Ring-necked Pheasant
1
All-time low (tie)
Red-throated Loon
27
Common Loon
66
Pied-billed Grebe
5
Horned Grebe
99
Red-necked Grebe
1
Northern Gannet
208
Double-crested Cormorant
130
Great Cormorant
52
Great Blue Heron
12
10-year low
Northern Harrier
12
All-time low 
Sharp-shinned Hawk
5
Cooper's Hawk
9
10-year low
Red-tailed Hawk
13
10-year low
American Kestrel
1
10-year low
Merlin
1
10-year low
Peregrine Falcon
3
10-year low
Clapper Rail
3
IRR
American Coot
46
Black-bellied Plover
20
Semipalmated Plover
1
RARE
Killdeer
17
10-year high
Greater Yellowlegs
7
Ruddy Turnstone
3
IRR
Sanderling
401
Purple Sandpiper
23
Dunlin
38
Wilson's Snipe
1
RARE
American Woodcock
1
Bonaparte's Gull
242
Ring-billed Gull
6797
Herring Gull
1616
All-time low
Great Black-backed Gull
150
All-time low
Rock Pigeon
704
Mourning Dove
150
Monk Parakeet
10
10-year low
Snowy Owl
15
IRR; ALL-TIME HIGH (by c. 4x)
Belted Kingfisher
1
10-year low
Red-headed Woodpecker
1
RARE
Red-bellied Woodpecker
33
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
22
Downy Woodpecker
30
Northern Flicker
8
All-time low 
Blue Jay
62
American Crow
70
All-time low 
Horned Lark
50
Tree Swallow
4
IRR
Black-capped Chickadee
4
All-time low 
Tufted Titmouse
4
All-time low 
White-breasted Nuthatch
5
10-year low
Brown Creeper
1
10-year low
Carolina Wren
34
Winter Wren
2
Hermit Thrush
11
American Robin
33
10-year low
Gray Catbird
5
Northern Mockingbird
32
10-year low
European Starling
924
All-time low 
American Pipit
2
10-year low
Cedar Waxwing
3
10-year low
Orange-crowned Warbler
2
IRR
Nashville Warbler
1
RARE
Yellow-rumped Warbler
135
All-time low 
Palm Warbler
1
Eastern Towhee
2
10-year low
American Tree Sparrow
59
Chipping Sparrow
4
Field Sparrow
6
Savannah Sparrow
36
Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow
1
RARE
Sharp-tailed Sparrow (sp.)
1
RARE
Fox Sparrow
50
10-year high
Song Sparrow
247
Swamp Sparrow
86
10-year high
White-throated Sparrow
377
Dark-eyed Junco
207
Snow Bunting
251
10-year high
Northern Cardinal
153
Red-winged Blackbird
111
Eastern Meadowlark
1
10-year low
Rusty Blackbird
3
IRR
Common Grackle
2
Brown-headed Cowbird
356
House Finch
156
American Goldfinch
164
House Sparrow
418
Total:        110  species
             38,991  individuals

Addedem : final species count was 111 for Kings, 50 for Prospect Park

Gallery of photos , all pictures taken  by Klemens Gasser

Best bird for Prospect Park was CACKLING GOOSE, 2 birds on Prospect Lake
Hooded Mergansers
Wood Ducks
Northern Shovelers are hard to count in a tight flock
Lesser Scaup drake
Rusty Blackbird
Yellow -bellied Sapsucker, photo by Klemens Gasser







NYC Bird Report

date = 12/14/13
site = Prospect Park
observers = Prospect Park CBC 

CACKLING GOOSE 2 Lake
Double-crested Cormorant 
Great Blue Heron 
Northern Shoveler 312
Lesser Scaup 
Gadwall 
American Black Duck 
Canada Goose 
Wood Duck 10 set record kings cbc
Hooded Merganser 
Ruddy Duck 
Mute Swan 
Mallard 
Cooper's Hawk 
Red-tailed Hawk 
American Coot 
Great Black-backed Gull 
Ring-billed Gull 
Herring Gull 
Rock Pigeon 
Mourning Dove 
Downy Woodpecker 
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 
Red-bellied Woodpecker 
American Crow 
Blue Jay 
Fish Crow count week
Tufted Titmouse 4
Black-capped Chickadee 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 
Winter Wren 
Carolina Wren 
Ruby-crowned Kinglet count week
Golden-crowned Kinglet count week
Hermit Thrush 
Gray Catbird 
Northern Mockingbird 
European Starling 
Swamp Sparrow 
White-throated Sparrow 
Song Sparrow 
Fox Sparrow 
American Tree Sparrow 
Dark-eyed Junco 
Eastern Towhee 
Northern Cardinal 
Red-winged Blackbird 
Rusty Blackbird 3
Purple Finch count week
House Finch 
American Goldfinch 
House Sparrow