The Southern Nassau County CBC was conducted on Saturday, 29 December 2012, by 66 participants. The morning was nearly windless and very favorable for birding, but rain and snow began around 11:30 and greatly impeded effort thereafter.
The species total was 129, slightly below our 10-year average of 130.7. We also recorded two additional distinctive subspecies and two hybrid combinations. The following highlights are presented in terms of their scarcity over the past ten years: 0 records in past ten years: 20 White-winged Crossbills Short and Five Towns 1 record in past ten years: Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Baldwin Bald Eagle Hempstead 26 Red Crossbills Atlantic, Short, and Tobay 2 records in past ten years: Snowy Egret Baldwin Pine Siskin Short 3 records in past ten years: Red-shouldered Hawk Massapequa Rough-legged Hawk Tobay 9 (!) Semipalmated Plovers Atlantic (2) and Loop (7); remarkably, this tally is not an all-time max for this count, falling one short of the 10 recorded in the 1972-73 CBC season. 11 Monk Parakeets Massapequa and Baldwin; they’re here now. Common Yellowthroat Baldwin Chipping Sparrow Massapequa 4 Purple Finches Loop, Massapequa, and Baldwin 13 Common Redpolls Short and Tobay 4 records in past ten years: 2 Eurasian Wigeon Massapequa Eurasian Green-winged Teal Hempstead 4 (!) Northern Goshawks Short, Tobay, Five Towns, and Massapequa In this regard, I found it interesting to analyze our results comprehensively, in terms of expectations based on the past ten years. What I found is that this year’s count was very much consistent with expectations: the number of species recorded from each frequency category was remarkably close to the number of species expected, based on the total number of potential species in that category multiplied by its probability of being detected in a given recent year. Frequency Potential 113th CBC, 29 Dec 2012 prev 10 yrs Species* Expected Observed Exp Prob Obs Prob 0 60 0 1 0.00 0.02 1 17 1.7 3 0.10 0.18 2 13 2.6 2 0.20 0.15 3 19 5.7 8 0.30 0.42 4 9 3.6 4 0.40 0.44 5 4 2 1 0.50 0.25 6 9 5.4 4 0.60 0.44 7 9 6.3 6 0.70 0.67 8 7 5.6 4 0.80 0.57 9 9 8.1 7 0.90 0.78 10 91 91 91 1.00 1.00 Totals: 247* 132* 131* *Distinctive subspecies, such as Common Teal and Ipswich Sparrow, were included in this analysis. This perspective also yields insights into the species perceived as our worst misses on Saturday, again presented in terms of frequency over the past 10 years: 10 records in past ten years: Not a single one of the 91 species in this category was missed. 9 records in past ten years: American Bittern (luck of the draw) Orange-crowned Warbler (luck of the draw) 8 records in past ten years: American Kestrel (watch for this species’ 10-year frequency to plunge) Cedar Waxwing (luck of the draw) Harlquin Duck (recorded count-week) 7 records in past ten years: Canvasback (ongoing decline in our area; totals surpassed 200 as recently as 1990) Long-billed Dowitcher (prospects poor since habitat was altered in Massapequa) Lesser Black-backed Gull (luck of the draw) Species recorded during count-week but not on the day of the count were Tundra Swan, Harlequin Duck, Iceland Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, and Palm Warbler. Quantitatively, the total of 253 Common Loons was an all-time maximum for this long-standing count. I was amazed to discover that our tally of 77 White-winged Scoters on Saturday was actually a maximum over the past 20 years. This species was formerly the most numerous wintering scoter in our area, but the days of totals in the multi-thousands in this circle are receding into the past. The count of 136 Blue Jays was also a maximum for the past 20 years, whereas 80 Carolina Wrens and 38 Winter Wrens were all-time maxima. We over-indulged on Boat-tailed Grackles, a quintessential feast-or-famine species on Long Island CBCs, savoring 199, a new maximum. In contrast, no new minima were established for regularly occurring species. Finally, it is necessary to mention Hurricane Sandy, whose impacts were impressed upon us at every turn. The human costs of this storm were immense and ubiquitous, from flattened dunes to gutted homes to salt-burned pines to wavering lines of wrack farther upland than most of us have ever seen them. We lost our long-time compilation site, Otto’s Sea Grill, in Freeport. In terms of bird life, members of the Loop team mentioned a paucity of some kinds of birds in damaged marsh areas, and inland teams noted the destruction of many large trees. Overall, however, the numbers prove the resilience of wild creatures, and I was cheered throughout the day by exuberant Song Sparrows and Carolina Wrens. People are resilient, too, as shown by the hard work and good cheer of our 66 participants, some of whom lost their homes to the storm, and by the festive drama of our compilation dinner at the Wander Inn in Baldwin, as a gentle snow fell outside. Shai Mitra & Patricia Lindsay, Bay Shore Some photos from the 113th CBC season, and from Hurricane Sandy, are collected at the following sites: https://picasaweb.google.com/109808209543611018404/CBC113# https://picasaweb.google.com/109808209543611018404/HurricaneSandy ________________________________ 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/[email protected]/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/ --
