Hi all,
The Chesapeake Bay CBC will be held on its usual date this year of 26
December (Boxing Day for some), from predawn to dusk, on Islands 3 and 4 (the
northern pair of islands) of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Several folks have phoned and emailed about participating in the CBC, so I
thought I'd post a note here regarding participation. Because this is
essentially a stationary count (different from most others), we have only
modest needs
for paying participants to count the birds that can be seen from the islands.
Currrently, we have enough folks committed to doing this for 2003, which is
the reason the Audubon website is not permitting pre-registration and
pre-payment for this CBC (www.audubon.org/bird/cbc).
However, as dozens of people do every year, it's fine to come out and join
the CBC at any time during the day, stay as long as you like (provided you have
the necessary permit: see www.cbbt.com), enjoy the birding, and see what's
been counted. The only difference from being an "official" counter is that
you
don't have to pay the compiler the $5.00 count fee, don't have to stand out in
the cold all day, and don't have to tally the birds! We just ask that
visitors to the islands on this day avoid flushing up all the gulls from their
day-roosts on the sides of the islands, as these have produced some of the most
interesting records on this CBC and are essential for getting an accurate
estimate of their overall numbers as well.
Since 1994, this annual count has tallied some 78 species -- possibly the
lowest tally in the state for a comparable period? But we have found some
interesting species and numbers from the perspective of state-birding, as one
might
expect here at the Bay's mouth. The cumulative list is below, with the 2002
count following the species name and the previous counts (starting with 1994)
in parentheses.
Common Loon 17 (29, 34, 5, 101, 26, 6, 28, 23)
Red-throated Loon 54 (2, 8, 67, 661, 17, 158, 51)
Pacific Loon 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0)
Horned Grebe 5 (1, 4, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Red-necked Grebe 0 (0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Northern Gannet 860 (216, 9, 218, 66, 26, 87, 220, 13,000+)
Brown Pelican 34 (3, 0, 0, 15, 0, 2, 1, 15)
Great Cormorant 28 (46, 71, 39, 18, 36, 27, 42, 31)
Double-crested Cormorant 3 (1, 4, 6, 4, 4, 3, 1, 3)
Great Blue Heron 3 (0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Tundra Swan 0 (0, 0, 0, CW, 4, 0, 0)
Canada Goose 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 7)
Snow Goose 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 6)
Brant 0 (0, 16, 0, 2, 0, 2, 4, 0)
Mallard 3 (0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0)
American Black Duck 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0)
Northern Pintail 5 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Green-winged Teal 4 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0)
Common Goldeneye 1 (1, 6, 2, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0)
Bufflehead 7 (12, 5, 1, 0, 0, 1, 5, 0)
Ring-necked Duck 0 (0, 0, CW, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Greater Scaup 1 (2, 5, 0, 5, 0, 25, 1, 0)
Lesser Scaup 9 (0, 0, CW, 0, 0, 7, 0, 1)
scaup species 5 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Ruddy Duck 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0)
Common Merganser 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0)
Red-breasted Merganser 690 (124, 154, 614, 99, 380, 415, 820, 59+)
Common Eider 1 female (0, 0, 1, 24, 0, 1, 2, 0)
King Eider 1 male (0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 0, 0, 0)
Harlequin Duck 1 male (1, 0, 3, 4, 0, 0, 3, 2)
Long-tailed Duck 14 (194, 210, 68, 41, 42, 26, 7, 2)
Surf Scoter 2120 (433, 510, 1039, 601, 720, 495, 770, 3900+)
White-winged Scoter 38 (29, 205, 22, 14, 3, 7, 54, 24) B
lack Scoter 1975 (56, 42, 54, 722, 10, 47, 2, 287+)
scoter sp. 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3400+)
Turkey Vulture 0 (1, 0, 108, 0, 0, 0, 0, CW)
Black Vulture 0 (2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Red-tailed Hawk 0 (1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Peregrine Falcon 1 (0, 0, CW, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0)
Merlin 1 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1)
Great Black-backed Gull 350 (103, 175, 44, 38, 266, 85, 20, 1250+)
Lesser Black-backed Gull 12 (2, 2, CW, 0, 1, 1, 2, 30+)
Yellow-legged Gull 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, CW)
Glaucous Gull 0 (0, 0, 0, CW, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid CW (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1)
Iceland Gull 0 (1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1)
Thayer's Gull CW (1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, CW)
Laughing Gull 65 (2, 0, 12, 24, 246, 48, 0, 550+)
Black-tailed Gull 0 (0, 0, CW, CW, 1, 1, 0, 0)
Little Gull 0 (0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 3)
California Gull CW (0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Herring Gull 2200 (1124, 950, 622, 126, 1200, 2150, 70, 8900+)
Ring-billed Gull (1809, 2010, 10350, 297, 2190, 15,000, 325, 4400+)
Common Gull 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1)
Bonaparte's Gull 5 (19, 0, 545, 2529, 277, 3200, 12400, 435)
Black-headed Gull 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, CW)
Black-legged Kittiwake 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, CW)
Gull sp. 4000+(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, CW)
Forster's Tern 1 (0, 0, 0, 1, 6, 8, 0, 0)
Pomarine Jaeger 0 (0, 0, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1)
Parasitic Jaeger 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1)
American Oystercatcher 1 (12, 0, 2, 35, 2, 0, 1, 1)
Killdeer 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0)
Sanderling 4 (0, 2, 0, 4, 2, 5, 1, 1)
Least Sandpiper 0 (0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Dunlin 0 (0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Ruddy Turnstone 8 (69, 18, 1, 4, 9, 3, 9)
Purple Sandpiper 26 (82, 16, 16, 9, 29, 8, 17)
guillemot sp. 0 (0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Rock Pigeon 0 (0, 1, 1, 0, 2, 0, 1, 2)
Tree Swallow 0 (0, 0, 0, 26, 0, 0, 0, 0)
American Pipit 2 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0)
Cedar Waxwing 1 (0, 0, CW, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
European Starling 0 (1, 0, 1, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 0 (0, 0, CW, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0)
Song Sparrow 1 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
White-throated Sparrow 1 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Red-winged Blackbird 6 (0, 0, 0, 0, 12, 0, CW)
Brown-headed Cowbird 15 (0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0)
American Goldfinch 0 (0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Snow Bunting 0 (0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Happy birding and holidays,
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
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