The Queens County Bird Club was held Sunday, 20 December, with great participation (still figuring out how many people total). Despite some very cold precipitation for a chunk of the day and the damage the winter storm did earlier to the half-hardies, we counted 29,003 birds of 125 species, which is a record high for us in the modern era.
Highlights included our third-ever Osprey and third-ever Northern Waterthrush, four Red Knots (for the first time in a long time), and a bunch of species with record-high numbers. Many thanks to all of the sector leaders who safely and successfully guided their teams to finding lots of great birds, especially Steve Walter who stepped up and led our "Flushingham" sector when the usual leader was unable to do so. As always, thanks to Nancy Tognan for doing much behind-the-scenes work and also for doing the spreadsheet during our virtual compilation. Notable gets, misses, and high counts: 114 Common Eider - all time count high 602 Red-breasted Merganser -16 off the all-time high set 17 years ago 74 Common Loon - barely squeaking into our all-time high 201 Double-crested Cormorant - a new all-time high 2 American Oystercatcher - 6th time on the count missed Black-bellied Plover 570 Sanderling - 17 off the all-time count high set 47 years ago 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull - 8th occurrence, almost all in last ten years 3 Great Horned Owls - our only owl species, exceptionally bad owl luck 100 Downy Woodpeckers - a new count high 8 Merlin - one off our high set last year 235 Fish Crow - new count high 8 Common Raven - one off our high set last year 1 House Wren - tenth appearance 25 Winter Wren - more than tripling our previous high count 117 Carolina Wren - new count high 11 Gray Catbird - a new count high 1 Pine Warbler - fifth record for the count 21 Field Sparrows - a very good number 11 "Ipswich" Savannah Sparrows - a new high count 46 Swamp Sparrows - 18 off our all-time high but a very solid number 292 Northern Cardinals - a new all-time high count 1 Baltimore Oriole - 12th occurrence on the count 33 Common Redpoll - 13th occurrence on the count 1 Pine Siskin - amazing considering how abundant they were earlier this year No crossbills of either species The 2021 Queens County Christmas Bird Count will take place on Sunday, December 19. Please reach out to me via email if you would like to participate! Good Birding, Corey Finger Queens County CBC Compiler -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
