2011 Great Backyard Bird Count for W. M. Foundation Summary

2011 Great Backyard Bird Count Totals for White Memorial Foundation

Conducted February 18, 19, 20, and 21 by Dave Rosgen, Mike Amodeo, John Eykelhoff, Samantha Foster, John & Carol Grabowski, Lukas Hyder, Jim Kandefer, John Marshall

Species                                         Total

Canada Goose                                350

Mute Swan                                       17

Wood Duck                                       4

American Black Duck                        3

Mallard                                             57

Ring-necked Duck                           18

Hooded Merganser                             5

Common Merganser                           3

Turkey Vulture                                   4

Cooper's Hawk                                  1

Red-tailed Hawk                                2

American Woodcock                         1                       

Ring-billed Gull                               92

Herring Gull                                       5

Mourning Dove                                38

Eastern Screech-Owl                          1

Great Horned Owl                              3

N. Saw-whet Owl                              1

Red-bellied Woodpecker                   3

Downy Woodpecker                        16

Hairy Woodpecker                             4

Pileated Woodpecker                         5

Blue Jay                                             53

American Crow                              286

Black-capped Chickadee                 152

Tufted Titmouse                              41

Red-breasted Nuthatch                      3

White-breasted Nuthatch                 22

Brown Creeper                                  4

Golden-crowned Kinglet                   9

Eastern Bluebird                              29

American Robin                              37

European Starling                          575

Cedar Waxwing                               14

American Tree Sparrow                  27

Song Sparrow                                    2

White-throated Sparrow                  19

Dark-eyed Junco                              74

Northern Cardinal                            42

Red-winged Blackbird                     73

Common Grackle                             27

Brown-headed Cowbird                    4                      

House Finch                                     30

American Goldfinch                        20

House Sparrow                                11

Total Species: 45

Total Individuals: 2,086

Early Spring Migrant Birds

Canada Geese photographed at

Bantam Lake by Bob Stanowski

Eastern Bluebird photographed at

White Memorial by Bob Stanowski

It may be February 25th, and it may only be 34 degrees outside with a cold rain, but some birds are migrating back to and through Connecticut, anyway. Most of these early birds are short distance migrants that spent the winter in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, or Virginia. The previous blog post of mine touched upon some of these birds, along with an unusually early American Woodcock. Since then, more of the "regular" early spring migrants have arrived or increased in number. Chief among these are blackbirds, bluebirds, and Canada Geese. Even though White Memorial's Museum feeders have hosted up to 12 Red-winged Blackbirds all winter, we now can safely say that the migrants are here. The numbers around the Museum have increased somewhat, there are now a few at the Bantam Lake Outlet, and a mixed flock of 60 Red-wings and 20 Common Grackles has joined the European Starlings at Arethusa Farm. Eastern Bluebirds had been scarce around White Memorial during January and the first half of February, but we counted a combined total of approximately 25 around the Museum Area, along Webster Rd., and at the Bantam Lake Outlet for the Great Backyard Bird Count this past long weekend. This count only produced about 300 Canada Geese and 75 Mallards at the Bantam Lake Outlet. These have been typical numbers all winter. Therefore, it is highly likely that many of the 1210 Canada Geese, 155 Mallards, 34 American Black Ducks, and 16 Common Mergansers that I counted there last evening were newly arrived migrants. It should be noted for anyone visiting the Outlet that the number of birds is a lot lower in the morning and throughout much of the day because many of them go elsewhere to feed, and many of the new arrivals that have migrated all day don't settle in until evening. It is quite a spectacular sight to see wave upon wave of geese coming in to land in this relatively small area. If you wish to witness this yourself in the next week or so, you should park off N. Shore Rd. near Pt. Folly, and either walk to the Pt. Folly observation platform or walk down N. Shore Rd. to the Outlet bridge. High snow banks are currently making it impossible to park at the Outlet bridge.

Early American Woodcock & other birds on 2/18/11

American Woodcock photo from

http://www.jczinn.com/

On Friday, 2/18/11, Jim Kandefer, Mike Amodeo, and I censused several parts of White Memorial for the Great Backyard Bird Count. We came up with fairly good numbers of most of the expected species around the Museum Area, Pike Marsh, Bantam Lake Outlet, and N. Shore Rd. This included 4 Wood Ducks at the Outlet, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches at the Museum feeders, and a total of about 25 Eastern Bluebirds. We ended the day with a successful hour and a half of counting along Webster Rd., including Catlin Woods and Miry Brook Marsh. Arethusa Farm yielded a large mixed flock of blackbirds that included about 50 Red-wings and 20 Common Grackles with 500+ European Starlings. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the American Kestrel that we saw there on Wednesday. Heading back into Catlin Woods we heard a Great Horned Owl hooting from the area of the intersection of White's Woods and Webster Roads. Then we were astounded to hear an American Woodcock giving its "peent" call from Miry Brook Marsh. After a few "peents" it picked up and flew around the marsh before settling back down and resuming "peenting". Then it lifted off, flew around the marsh, up Webster Rd. over our heads, and northbound over Catlin Woods. We didn't hear it again after that. I think that this is only the third time that I've encountered a woodcock as early as February in the Litchfield/Morris area. Right after the excitement of finding this bird had subsided I started whistling for Northern Saw-whet Owls. We have found these birds quite regularly in Catlin Woods in mid and late February. After about 2 minutes of intermittent whistling we heard a Saw-whet answer from the north side of the road in the thick hemlocks. We saw it fly among the sapling-sized trees and then disappear. Not wanting to subject it to any more disturbance or being preyed upon by the Great Horned Owl, we stopped whistling and left it alone. When I get all of the results from our GBBC counters compiled, I'll post them in a future bog.

Dave Rosgen Explaining the Great Backyard Bird Count

Video directed by Gerri Griswold

http://www.birdcount.org/