Posts
This morning and afternoon I participated in my third Christmas Bird Count of 2005 - the Raritan Estuary Bird Count in central New Jersey. For this count I was birding with my mother and sister; we covered areas along the Raritan River near where I grew up. We were a little sparse on the ground, especially compared to the Washington, DC, bird count. Plus we were working against the threat of bad weather in the afternoon. But we managed to complete our four-mile sector before the rains fell.
There were fewer species in our sector this year than last year, but more individuals. Unfortunately we missed winter wren and both kinglets; chickadees also were hardly to be found. Some highlights included great cormorants (uncommon inland), peregrine falcon, common goldeneye, yellow-bellied sapsucker, and brown creeper.
| Species | Number |
|---|---|
| Great Cormorant | 5 |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 5 |
| Great Blue Heron | 1 |
| Turkey Vulture | 5 |
| Canada Goose | 1518 |
| American Black Duck | 1 |
| Mallard | 289 |
| Common Goldeneye | 3 |
| Common Merganser | 23 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 2 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 1 |
| Killdeer | 2 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 121 |
| Herring Gull | 165 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 37 |
| Gull sp. | 380 |
| Rock Pigeon | 24 |
| Mourning Dove | 119 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 4 |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 17 |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 11 |
| Northern Flicker | 9 |
| Blue Jay | 107 |
| American Crow | 51 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 1 |
| Tufted Titmouse | 22 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 5 |
| Brown Creeper | 2 |
| Carolina Wren | 4 |
| American Robin | 356 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 3 |
| European Starling | 405 |
| Song Sparrow | 27 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 76 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 122 |
| Northern Cardinal | 30 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 1 |
| House Finch | 29 |
| American Goldfinch | 24 |
| House Sparrow | 90 |
| Number of Species | 41 |
| Number of Individuals | 4100 |
And Happy New Year to all!
