The 51st Captree CBC was conducted on 16 Dec 2012 under strong easterly winds, with rain increasing from trace in the morning to light through the afternoon.
The species total was 115 (plus Ipswich Sparrow), just above the 10-year average of 114, but the composition of this middling total was regarded as really remarkable by long-time participants. Three species were added to the count's hefty cumulative list: American Golden-Plover--continuing bird at Heckscher SP Parasitic Jaeger--seen at length off of Robert Moses SP; the Captree CBC has one prior record of a jaeger sp., from 20 Dec 1987. Common Raven--2 at Edgewood Preserve, this circle's version of a northern wilderness. Using the Brooklyn CBC's scarcity criteria, we recorded 10 species that have been found on only 0-3 of the past 10 CBCs, and a further 10 species that have been found on 4-7 of the past 10 CBCs. The pair of numbers after each name represent the number of records from the last 10 years, followed by the number of records from the count's previous 50-year history (for example, Dovekie had not been recorded in the last 10 years, but was recorded 6 times 1962-2011). Dovekie 0, 6 (6 birds off of RMSP) Yellow-breasted Chat 0, 2 (West Sayville) White-winged Crossbill 0, 5 (7 birds in 3 sectors) Barnacle Goose 1, 1 (continuing bird St Charles Cem) Blue-winged Teal 1, 5 (Connetquot River SP) Black Rail 1, 1 (Yes, the "Captree Crake Curse" has struck yet again!) Common Yellowthroat 1, 21 (Heckscher SP; obvious decrease in frequency in the past decade) Red Crossbill 1, 13 (43 birds in 2 sectors) Black-legged Kittiwake 3, 30 (19 birds, all adults, flying west to east off RMSP) Monk Parakeet 3, 3 (Edgewood) Purple Finch 4, 18 (Edgewood) Virginia Rail 5, 14 (3 birds in 2 sectors) Greater Yellowlegs 5, 22 (11 birds Gardiner sector) Brown-headed Cowbird 5, 39 (8 birds Gardiner sector) Common Eider 6, 17 (48 birds along oceanfront) Razorbill 6, 16 (Cedar Beach) White-crowned Sparrow 6, 17 (4 birds, Edgewood & St Charles Cem) Wild Turkey 7, 41 (2 birds Seatuck sector) American Kestrel 7, 45 (St Charles Cem) Killdeer 7, 38 (5 birds Seatuck sector) By far our worst miss was Horned Grebe. Despite extensive coverage of the oceanfront, Fire Island Inlet, and Great South Bay, this species was absent for just the second time in 51 years. Also missed for the second time ever was Canvasback, but in this case the first miss was just last year, and numbers have been obviously reduced in recent years (Captree averaged 859 Canvasbacks per year from 1969-1981). Eastern Meadowlark was missed for the the 6th time in 51 years, and Wilson's Snipe for the 10th time. After these, the misses were much less unusual, but seemingly included a larger proportion of "tough" species than usual--probably owing to the poor weather. Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay Bay Shore ________________________________ Washington Monthly<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/features/americas_bestbangforthebuck_co039461.php> magazine ranks the College of Staten Island as one of "America's Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges" -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
