|
It seemed more like a late fall day than a winter day for our annual Christmas Bird Count this year as 36 participants once again took to the “fields” to cover our count circle. The nice weather was certainly welcomed although we had a below average count with 52 species and 8779 individuals. Our ten-year averages are 63 species and 12837 individuals; while our average for all 78 counts conducted are 50 species and 9686 individuals. The To paraphrase one long-time participant, “Nicest weather in recent memory, worst numbers I can remember”.The trendy reasons for our below average count would be to blame global warming or the current state of politics in the United States but the truth is that we cannot make any concrete assessments or conclusions based on any single Christmas Bird Count or other similar census. The value of these counts in monitoring populations is to use them to identify trends. Looking at the collective data over all 78 counts gives us a portal of bird life in this area over that time. A look at the collective data will reveal a reduction and almost disappearance in Field and American Tree Sparrows seen over the years. Is this because their populations have dropped or because we’ve lost their preferred winter habitat in our count circle (my guess)? Did you know that we used to get good numbers of pheasants (until the last decade), bobwhites (in the 30s), and long-eared owls (also in the 30s) on our count? That’s right we had these species when the area was much less developed and we still had local farms and the hedgerows maintained by the farmers as windscreens. The loss of this habitat is probably related to the decline in our area of all the species just mentioned. We all know the West Nile Virus has taken a toll on American Crows but could Blue Jays also have been impacted or do we just have a poor acorn crop in the area this year? We missed Cedar Waxwing and Red-breasted Nuthatch on count day but people in the field had them the days before and after the count in areas covered. Sometimes, dumb luck comes in to play. This all makes for lots of fun and speculation but it isn’t until we can compare our data for several years along with other counts in the area that we can actually make some sound conclusions. I would once again like to thank everyone who went out looking for birds, without your help and participation Christmas Bird Counts don’t succeed. I would like to thank Nancy Hence and Pam Serenty for supplying goodies at the compilation. Lastly I would like to thank Andy Fayer for helping organize this year’s count and Bert Filemyr for his statistical wizardry once again. Next year’s count will be on December 17th, so mark you calendars now. |
|