The Queens County Christmas Bird Count was held this past Sunday, the 17th. A little over 60 participants counted a record-high 134 species! (37, 923 birds were counted in total.) In addition to getting a record-high number of species we had 4 count week birds, an amazing 18 species set new count highs, and we had a new species for the count, Cape May Warbler. We were aided greatly by the forecasted rain holding off almost entirely until after dark.
Highlights, lowlights, high counts, saves, misses and other oddities below: *Highlights* Cape May Warbler - 1st for the count, Powell Cove Park Saltmarsh Sparrow - 2nd for the count, Dubose Point Prairie Warbler - 3rd for the count, Bayswater Point State Park Ash-throated Flycatcher (seen simultaneously with the PRWA) - 3rd for the count, Bayswater Point State Park American Bittern - 1 at Edgemere Landfill 2 White-crowned Sparrows Red Knot - absent on the count in the recent past, at Atlantic Beach 81 Purple Sandpipers - a very high count but not a count high 2 Laughing Gulls - 1 on each side of Rockaway Inlet Wilson's Warbler - sadly, only for count week *Bad Misses* Ring-necked Pheasant - our reliable site in the Rockaways has been cleared for development Bald Eagle - but we got it for count week! Black Vulture - none of the wintering group was found on count day but we got it for count week Red-breasted Nuthatch - just not around this year Snow Bunting - none in our beach habitat a lot of which is degraded as they do coastal resilience work in the eastern Rockaways, nor at JFK this year *Notable Saves* Killdeer was found only in the Douglaston Sector Northern Pintail (1) was found only at Springfield Park in the Baisleywild Sector Common Eider (1 drake) have become surprisingly scarce compared to recent years Great Egret (1) was a good find for the Jamaica Bay Sector Red-shouldered Hawk was a great save by Alley Pond Sector Marsh Wren at Willow Lake was a surprise Forest Park Sector save Pine Siskin (1) and Purple Finch (2) were wonderful finds for the Valley Stream Sector (I'm sure there are more and my apologies for not remembering every important save.) *High Counts* Bufflehead - 1,151 Ruddy Duck - 2,379 Double-crested Cormorant - 414, over 100 better than our previous high count American Oystercatcher - an astonishing (for the Queens Count) 35 in a single flock, topping our previous high count of 5 Wilson's Snipe - 7, barely topping our record of 5 Razorbill - 108 obliterated our previous high of 12 Lesser Black-backed Gull - 4 doubles our previous high, which was set just a couple of years ago Mourning Dove - 1,007, more birds or just better coverage? Eastern Screech-Owl - 3, tripling our previous high! Belted Kingfisher - 14 tied our record Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 25 topping our old record by 6 Hairy Woodpecker - 25, topping our old record by 5 Common Raven - 12, 1 better than our best House Wren - 3, tripling our high count! Winter Wren - 29, beatin our high by 4 American Robin - 838, which seems like a low high count Nashville Warbler - 4, topping our best of 3 Eastern Towhee - 18, old record was 12 *Odds and ends* Black-capped Chickadee - only 10, very low, and none in Forest Park at all Tufted Titmouse - only 16, also very low, also none in Forest Park White-breasted Nuthatch was also a pretty low number overall, with 26 (101 last year) Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was a count week bird at Bayswater Point State Park by folks seeking the Ash-throated Flycatcher today, which was not refound Many thanks to Ian Resnick, President of the Queens County Bird Club for arranging APEC for our compilation dinner and making sure we had pizza. Thanks to all of the sector leaders who led great teams this year. Thanks to Sophie Barno for doing data entry at the compilation. And thanks most of all to all of the participants who gave it their all this year for an excellent count! Good Christmas Bird Count Birding, Corey Finger Queens County CBC Compiler -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
