Count Summary of the 58th Annual Cumberland County CBC December 30, 2007
Click Here for a pdf file of the complete results.
Thanks everyone for making this years count such a great success. This year we managed to set or tie high counts for an amazing 25 species and 2 more were new to the count bringing the cumulative total up to 203 species! Our totals were especially surprising since afternoon rains shortened the day for a lot of parties. Special thanks goes to Michael Obrien’s group for sticking it out in the rain to count the “blackbirds” going to roost at dusk and to the many groups that took advantage of the good owling conditions in the early morning hours to help us post some great owl numbers.
The Dunne/Freiday group had a count day to envy this year at Turkey Point. They turned up 2 species new to the count with White-eyed Vireo and N. Shrike, as well as the second count record of Yellow-headed Blackbird! We may have been the only NJ count to have had multiple records of Loggerhead Shrike, but no Northern Shrike. They also added the only Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrows and Am. Bittern and 6 Great Egrets to this years count.
While we didn’t post huge numbers of Northern finches this year, we did get a hint that this was an invasion year. We had a record number of Purple Finches and most parties recorded at least a few. We also had a record number of Red-breasted Nuthatches with 122 following last years near record low of just 4. There were good numbers of Am. Goldfinches and 7 Pine Siskins as well as 3 Red Crossbills seen by Clay Sutton’s party and a flyby Common Redpoll seen by the Guris party to round out the finches. There were no Evening Grosbeaks even this year, so I am taking it off the checklist in the hopes that they will maybe show up after giving up on them.
Waterfowl numbers were unremarkable this year, though we missed N. Shoveler and Scoters. Open water meant pretty good numbers and diversity, but Snow Geese were down a bit for a change. Raptors were well reported this year with record numbers of Peregrine Falconss and Red-shouldered Hawks which is encouraging. Kestrel numbers remain low, but better than last year and we missed N. Goshawk and Golden Eagle this year. My party found a light morph Rough-legged Hawk (a first for our area) out on the “silica barrens”, but oddly none were seen along the bayshore.
We managed to sweep the expected Wrens this year, and we had Pine Warbler, Palm, and Common Yellowthroat, but no Orange-crowned. Woodpecker numbers were very good this year for some reason, and we set record highs for 4 species. Other songbirds setting record highs were Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Am. Robin, E. Towhee, Field Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow, Cardinal, and Rusty Blackbird. Not bad for just one years count.
Great owling conditions in the morning and lots of effort produced another sweep of the expected owls (second straight year!) We had a record 6 Barn Owls and over 109 Great Horned owls, but our 148 E. Screech Owls will likely be the high count for N. America. We continue to show that the Delaware Bayshore is a real Owl hotspot.
Other highlights this year were 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls found by Bob Diebold’s party and the Guris party again counted the Cranes coming in to roost at Husted Landing with a record of 16 this year, so the flock continues to grow. Interestingly one bird this year looked to be a pure Common Crane, and the rest looked like Sandhills. This is the first time in years that a “Common Crane” was seen among the flock and it may be a real vagrant. I put them down on the list as Crane sp. this year until we work out exactly what they are.
I saved the misses for last this year, since there weren’t that many. Surprisingly we missed E. Phoebe this year as well as Baltimore Oriole. Not surprisingly we missed N. Bobwhite, which has declined in our area and may soon be extirpated. I think sadly that Ruffed Grouse has been extirpated from Southern NJ and I am taking it off our checklist, I hope someone can prove me wrong.
Thanks to everyone for a great effort and your continued support of this count, some of you for many years. I hope everyone can join us again next year. The date will be Sunday December 28 next year. I welcome your comments and suggestions.
Good Birding,
Mike Fritz (compiler)
Seaville, NJ 08230