Many many thanks to the generous landowners who
allowed us access to their properties and to the
28 birders in ten parties who did such an
excellent job finding birds in this wonderful
section of the state! We are all so thankful
that there is no hunting on Sundays thus allowing
us to bird areas not accessible on hunting days.
It was a great day for birding, warm and
pleasant, a great way to end the year, and the
rain held off until after sundown. We had our
second best year ever in terms of total species
(101) second only to our high of 103 in 2005.
We also added three new species to our count
list: American Bittern, Black-crowned Night
Heron, and Orange-crowned Warbler, bringing the
total count list to 115 species over thirteen
years. The Pamunkey River was chockful of
waterfowl, perhaps because of the
warmer-than-usual temperatures that kept the
hydrilla thriving. We had 21 new high counts
this year, 9 of which were waterfowl including an
astounding 1700 pintails. Since the tide was
fairly high for most of the daylight hours we saw
few shorebird species this year, but the tide
concentrated snipe in some locales leading to a
new high count of 202 snipe, with 136 of these
perched on the logs, muskrat lodges, shrubs, and
tufts of vegetation on one narrow 50 meter point
in the Pamunkey. We also had record highs of 341
killdeer on shorelines and farm fields throughout
the circle, and 18 woodcocks (all in one sector).
The golden eagle that occasionally appears was
not found this year but we did tie our high for
bald eagles (47). Numbers for some passerines
such as kinglets, yellow-rumped warbler, hermit
thrush, cedar waxwing, robin, towhee, and fox
sparrow were very low perhaps because cold
weather has not yet forced them down to us from
the north. Is this also why there were fewer
than usual harriers? Chipping Sparrows were a
record high this year, again perhaps because of
the warm weather. We were pleased to see an
increase in the numbers of bobwhites and turkeys
this year. Huge numbers of blackbirds were along
the Pamunkey River and in the nearby corn fields
totalling well over 350,000 birds. A merlin was
watched by a group of students in the scope for
several minutes and from there it flew out over
the Pamunkey shallows above a sand/mud bar while
dangling its feet in the water to check its depth
(?) and then landing in the water for a quick
drink. The eurasian wigeon, cackling goose, and
white-fronted geese reported in the previous
month could not be found.
Here are the totals. The numbers in parentheses
are the number of years (max 13) seen, followed
by the average before this year.
Pied billed grebe 53 (12, 8) New high
DC Cormorant 6 (5,7)
Great Blue Heron 63 (13, 26) new high
American Bittern 1 new bird
Black-crowned Night Heron 1 New Bird
Tundra Swan 80 (9, 30)
Canada Goose 9919 (13, 3726)
Snow Goose 1 (4,0)
Wood Duck 10 (11, 13)
Green-winged Teal 123 (9, 65)
Blue-winged Teal 1 (5,1)
American Black Duck 289 (13, 65) new high
Mallard 1191 (13, 214) new high
Pintail 1756 (10, 132) new high
Shoveler 105 (5, 4) new high
Gadwall 270 (9, 31) new high
American Wigeon 8 (7,2)
Lesser Scaup 2 (8,3)
Ring-necked Duck 303 (13, 150)
Common Goldeneye 2 (7,4)
Bufflehead 234 (12, 34)
Hooded Merganser 19 (12, 34)
Common Merganser 11(10, 12)
Red-breasted Merganser 45 (5, 3) new high
Ruddy Duck 320 (9, 16) new high
Black vulture 108 (13, 93) a dramatic drop from
last year's record 289, a regular roost along the
Pamunkey no longer exists.
Turkey Vulture 378 (13, 182)second highest number
Bald Eagle 47 (32 ad 17 imm) (12,20) ties the
high
Northern Harrier 5 (13, 7)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 (13, 5)
Cooper's Hawk 6 (10, 1) new high
Red-shouldered Hawk 18 (13, 7)
Red-tailed Hawk 33 (13, 24)
American kestrel 11 (13, 9)
Merlin 1 (5,1)
Turkey 69 (13, 26) new high
Bobwhite 22 (9,7) 2 coveys, and 1 lone bird
Coot 270 (7,11) new high
Killdeer 341 (13, 129) new high
Greater Yellowlegs 4 (6,11)
Lesser Yellowlegs 22 (7, 4) new high
Wilson's snipe 202 (13, 56) new high
Woodcock 18 (9,3) new high
Ring-billed Gull 247 (13, 237)
Herring Gull 2 (12, 1)
Rock Pigeon 43 (11,10)
Mourning Dove 565 (13, 381)
Screech Owl 2( 9,3)
Great Horned Owl 8 (11,6)
Barred Owl 7 (12, 6)
B Kingfisher 21 (13, 19)
Red-headed Woodpecker 3 (12, 13) 2nd lowest ever
Red-bellied Woodpecker 71 (13, 57)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 17 (13, 22)
Downy Woodpecker 64 (13, 39)
Hairy W 18 (13, 12)
N Flicker 175 (13, 72)
Pileated W 26 (13, 25)
Phoebe 28 (13, 16)
Horned Lark 87 (11, 42)
Blue Jay 50 (13, 72)
American Crow 633 (13, 475)
Carolina Chickadee 120 (13, 85)
Tufted Titmouse 98 (13, 66)
RB nuthatch 1 (7, 1)
WB Nuthatch 36 (13, 24)
B Creeper 5 (13, 6)
Carolina Wren 154 (13, 85)
WInter Wren 16 (12, 11)
GC Kinglet 23 (13, 48)
RC Kinglet 19 (13, 29)
E Bluebird 230 (13 179)
Hermit Thrush 15, (13, 23)
Robin 411 (13, 1405)
Mockingbird 43 (13, 42)
Thrasher 8 (13, 6)
Am Pipit 21 (12, 75)
C Waxwing 54 (13, 363)
Starling 557 (13 585)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 11 (13, 107)
Orange-crowned Warbler 1 NEW BIRD
Pine Warbler 3 (12, 2)
Cardinal 355 (13, 169)
Towhee 16 (13, 27)
Chipping Sp 63 (11, 14) new high
Field Sp 46 (13, 27)
Savannah Sp 8 (11, 24)
Fox Sp 1 (10, 6)
Song Sp 308 (13, 230)
Swamp Sp 43 (13, 38)
White-throated Sp 979 (13, 813)
White-crowned Sp 1 (7,4)
DE Junco 608 (13, 565)
Redwinged Bl 250,987 (13, 4596)new high
Rusty Blackbird 29 (4,2) new high
C Grackle 95,013 (13, 20,404)
BH Cowbird 704 (12, 15) new high
Meadowlark 19 (13, 73) surprisingly few
House Finch 32 (13, 46) surprisingly few
Am Goldfinch 233 (13, 105)
House Sparrow 5 (13, 22) tied for lowest ever
Wishing you all grrrreat birding in 2007!
Fred
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
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