42nd CAPE CHARLES, VIRGINIA, Christmas Bird Count, Saturday, December 30,
2006. Preliminary results but this should be, essentially, "IT".
Unusual species are in caps. Unusually high numbers are spelled out and in
caps.
snow goose 9,500. blue goose 62. Ross's goose 2 (5 sightings by 4
parties, one party seeing 2; may have been > 2 individuals). brant 1581.
Canada goose 1880. tundra swan 64.
wood duck 9. gadwall 354. American wigeon 167. American black duck 740.
mallard 209. northern shoveler 13 (low). northern pintail 5 (low).
green-winged teal 219. ring-necked duck 72. lesser scaup 6. COMMON EIDER
1 female (seen by Bob Ake at Sunset Beach Resort). surf scoter 1419.
white-winged scoter 1. black scoter 13. unID'd scoter 75. long-tailed
duck 52. bufflehead 2900 (good count). common goldeneye 13. hooded
merganser 370. red-breasted merganser 489. ruddy duck 53.
northern bobwhite 0 (in GREAT decline on most of the Delmarva Peninsula).
red-throated loon FOUR-THOUSAND-SIX-HUNDRED-AND-FORTY-NINE, the majority
seen by the 3 island parties. common loon 246. pied-billed grebe 53.
horned grebe 272. EARED GREBE 1 (new for the cumulative list; in BREEDING
PLUMAGE for the love of Pete; studied carefully by DC,JS,JC,JY,RH&MB).
northern gannet 3351. brown pelican 119. double-crested cormorant 169.
great cormorant 27.
American bittern 1. great blue heron 61. great egret 18. tricolored
heron 3. black-crowned night heron 12. white ibis 0 (the first miss in 7
or 8 years). black vulture 164. turkey vulture 337. bald eagle 22.
northern harrier 24. sharp-shinned hawk 6. Cooper's hawk FOURTEEN.
red-shouldered hawk 5. red-tailed hawk 42. American kestrel 25. merlin 0
(only missed a few times in 42 years). peregrine falcon 6. clapper rail
89. king rail 1. Virginia rail 3. American coot 69.
black-bellied plover 254. semipalmated plover 2. killdeer 37. American
oystercatcher 207. greater yellowlegs 127. lesser yellowlegs 3. willet
FOUR-HUNDRED-AND-SEVENTY. whimbrel 3. marbled godit 40. ruddy turnstone
33. red knot 1. sanderling 35 (INCREDIBLY low considering c. 16 miles of
beach were searched). western sandpiper 4 (low). least sandpiper 1.
purple sandpiper NINETEEN (TS,RV; record numbers have been at the Cape
Charles jetties this fall/winter). dunlin 4401. short-billed dowitcher
142. Wilson's snipe 14. American woodcock 41 (Cape Charles usually gets
the national high count; maybe not this year in view of the mild weather).
Laughing Gull 1 (traditionally LAGU is strangely scarce here for this CBC).
Bonaparte's gull 311. ring-billed gull 1244. herring gull 1274. lesser
black-backed gull 1. greater black-backed gull 486. Forster's tern 2
(often scarce here; cf. 454 farther north on the Wachapreague C.B.C. Dec.
16). rock pigeon 542. Eurasian Collared-Dove NINE (SP,LS,TT,HA; a new
high; the little group on Route 600 is increasing slightly). mourning dove
448. eastern screech-owl 10. great horned owl 16.
belted kingfisher 28. red-headed woodpecker 1 adult (TS,RV). red-bellied
woodpecker 68. yellow-bellied sapsucker 17. downy woodpecker 43. hairy
woodpecker FOURTEEN. northern flicker 79 (in decline). pileated
woodpecker TWELVE. eastern phoebe 25. blue-headed vireo FOUR. blue jay
88. American crow 235. fish crow 3 (has been in decline for a while as a
wintering bird here).
horned lark 40. tree swallow 5. Carolina chickadee 155. tufted titmouse
35. red-breasted nuthatch 2. white-breasted nuthatch 1 (does not breed
locally but in some winters there are small flights into areas of the lower
Delmarva Peninsula where they don't nest). brown-headed nuthatch 8 (in
decline but seen by 3 parties, an improvement over some recent years).
brown creeper 11. Carolina wren 217. house wren 9. winter wren 23.
sedge wren 5. marsh wren 1. golden-crowned kinglet 52. ruby-crowned
kinglet 44. Eastern bluebird 172. hermit thrush 53. American robin 146.
gray catbird 14. northern mockingbird 75. brown thrasher 15. European
starling 957. American pipit 110. cedar waxwing 32 (low). orange-crowned
warbler 2. yellow-rumped warbler 1084 (in very low numbers this year).
pine warbler 19. palm warbler 9. common yellowthroat 3. eastern towhee
44.
chipping sparrow 139. field sparrow 56. Savannah sparrow 74. Ipswich
sparrow 5. Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow 7. saltmarsh sharp-tailed
sparrow 0. seaside sparrow 1 (the low tide was at least one contributing
factor to the low number of the 3 marsh sparrow species seen). fox sparrow
45. song sparrow 358. swamp sparrow 83. white-throated sparrow 450.
white-crowned sparrow 1 (BW; Fisherman Island). slate-colored junco 163.
northern cardinal. red-winged blackbird 1614. eastern meadowlark 136.
rusty blackbird 1. common grackle 973. boat-tailed grackle 150.
brown-headed cowbird 191. Baltimore oriole 1. house finch 57. American
goldfinch 89. house sparrow 72.
TOTAL: 149 species (low).
PARTICIPANTS. Bob Ake. George & Henry (compiler-523 E. Durham St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19119-1225; 215-248-4120; harryarmistead at hotmail dot
com) Armistead. Mel Baughman. Jim Beard. Jane Beavers. Ned Brinkley.
Ann & Gary Carpenter. Jack Carroll. Dan Cristol. Renee Hudgins. Bill
Keith. Steve Parker. Tom Saunders. Linda Schwartz. Matt Sharp. Jared
Sparks. Paul Sykes. Timothy Thompson. Craig Tumer. Craig & Glenn
Turner. Roberta Vallone. Bill Williams. Townley Wolfe. John Young.
EFFORT: miles on foot 60. miles by car 246. miles by boat 20. hours on
foot 90. hours by car 21. hours by boat 4. miles owling 10. hours
owling 3. 10 party areas, 3 of them with 2 sub-parties. 5 A.M. - 5:30
P.M. 27 observers.
WEATHER. clear becoming fair, temperature 38-55 degrees F., winds light
and variable or else calm, variously NE (mostly), NW or SW, tide low most
of the day becoming high in the late afternoon.
NON-BIRD TAXA. Several of us saw Buckeyes and Green Darners. Honeybees at
work in Mustard flowers. 2 Harbor Seals were near Myrtle Island. Mel saw
a big procession of dolphins off of Smith Island.
COUNT CIRCLE: Includes all of Fisherman, Smith, and Myrtle islands and
most of Mockhorn and Ship Shoal islands, the towns of Oyster, Capeville,
Cheapside, Fairview, Seaview, Bayview, Townsend, Cape Charles, and
Cheriton. Included in their entirety are Eastern Shore of Virginia and
Fisherman Island national wildlife refuges as well as Kiptopeke State Park.
SEEN COUNT WEEK BUT NOT ON THE DAY OF THE COUNT: White Ibis, Little Blue
Heron, Merlin.
GROUP BREAKDOWN. HEIBs, that is to say, Herons, Egrets, Ibises & Bitterns:
5 (low): waterfowl 25 (low): raptors 10 (low): shorebirds 19 (not bad):
owls 2 (low): woodpeckers 7 (good): sparrows 10 (low; does not include
towhee or junco):
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS. Many thanks to Sue Rice, Steve Parker, Dot
Field, and Sam Sweeney for permitting access to restricted sections of the
Eastern Shore of Virginia & Fisherman Island national wildlife refuges, The
Nature Conservancy land holdings, Virginia Dept. of Conservation and
Recreation areas, and Kiptopeke State Park respectively. Thanks to Ray
Maxwell for allowing us to use the lounge of Kiptopeke Inn for the
compilation. Thanks to Albert Heath for guiding 6 of us to remote areas in
his boat.
SOME IMPRESSIONS. Based on my participation in 6 coastal Christmas counts
in Virginia and North Carolina, and on observations on 4 other days before
and after them, it seems to me the following species are here in modestly
increased numbers: Long-tailed Duck, Horned Grebe, Cooper's Hawk, Hairy
and Pileated woodpeckers. Yellow-rumped Warblers seem down. In spite of
much birding activity in their marshy haunts, the 3 marsh sparrow species
were hard to come by.
THIS YEAR the striped bass fishing frenzy competed with us for motel rooms
as well as as for spots at the dining room table at Sting-Ray's. In 42
years this has never happened before. There were 27 observers this year, a
low turnout.
ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER AFTERMATH. There has been some criticism of my
handling of this sighting on the Nassawadox, VA, Christmas Count of
December 17 in that neither I nor the 3 observers who saw it revealed its
location right away, or, for that matter, its EXACT location later. I
didn't feel this was necessary because: 1) extensive efforts to relocate it
later on the day of and the day after the sighting were unsuccessful. 2)
the location is on private property; the property owner was not located.
3) this is a species that turns up with some frequency, I think, in the
state. For instance, in the case of Cape Charles Christmas Count there
have been 4 records in just that area in its 42 years. I realize we're not
talking Eurasian Wigeon or Eared Grebe here, but then neither are we
talking Tropical Kingbird or Southern Lapwing. I am sorry if anyone felt
disenfranchised by this. I always put my phone number on my postings. I
received no calls on this.
E-MAIL ADDRESSES NEEDED. I lack them for the Carpenters, Bill Keith, Glenn
Turner, Townley Wolfe, and Jane Beavers. Please send them if you know
them. Thanks.
Best regards to all. - Henry ("Harry") T. Armistead, 523 E. Durham St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Please, any off-list replies,
to: harryarmistead at hotmail dot com. Please never use 74077.3176 etc.
I do my keyboarding here but am unable to open most messages on that
Compuserve account.
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