Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Wally submitted a brief list of birds found during this shortened week.
Most of the expected winter residents were listed. Of note were
Common Goldeneye,
Common Merganser,
Ring-billed Gull,
Herring Gull,
Northern Harrier,
Bald Eagle and
Red-tailed Hawk. Dave
Saturday, December 19, 2020
Today was the annual Christmas Bird Count. Due to the COVID-19
Pandemic and continued limited access to Fermilab, the Count was
performed by a much smaller group than typically is assembled.
Although the weather conditions were very good, the overall number
of species was below the 25-year average of about 50 species.
Whether the low number of 45 species recorded was due to the reduced
number of participants or a reduced number of birds in the Lab is
hard to tell. I will say many times during the day we had numerous
stretches of recording little or no bird activity. A reasonably
nice list of waterfowl was compiled including
Canada Geese,
American Black Ducks,
Mallards, a
Ring-necked Duck, a
Bufflehead,
Common Goldeneyes,
Hooded Mergansers (32, an all-time record for the entire
Fermi Circle) and
Common Mergansers. Other water related birds
included a
Wilson's Snipe,
Great Blue Herons (3),
Ring-billed Gulls,
Herring Gulls and a
Belted Kingfisher. Raptors were represented by
the resident pair of
Bald Eagles,
Red-tailed Hawks (16) and
Northern Harriers (8, 5 seen at one time hunting the Dog
Fields late in the
afternoon). In addition, 9
Great Horned Owls were found throughout
the day, starting with the early morning, unsuccessful, search for
Screech Owls. Wally flushed the only
Short-eared Owl of the day
inside the Main Ring. The expected woodpeckers including
Red-bellied Woodpeckers (19),
Downy Woodpeckers (28),
Hairy Woodpeckers (7) and
a
Northern Flicker were recorded.
Blue Jays (31) and
American Crows (24) numbers were on the high side while
Black-capped Chickadees (64) were about average.
Brown Creepers (3) and
White-breasted Nuthatches (21) numbers were about typical while
Red-breasted Nuthatches (8), though not at irruption numbers, were well
represented. Sparrows were well represented in species count though
only the expected winter species were found in good numbers. Found were
American Tree Sparrows (53),
Savannah Sparrow (1),
Fox Sparrows (4),
Song Sparrow (1),
Swamp Sparrows (2),
White-throated Sparrow (1) and
Dark-eyed Juncos (57). All other more common/expected birds
were close to their expected numbers. Some notable misses were
Cooper's Hawk,
American Kestrel,
Eastern Screech-Owl (though rare in
recent years, we did have one last year),
Long-eared Owl,
Northern Shrike,
Horned Lark,
Golden-crowned Kinglet,
Eastern Bluebird,
Cedar Waxwing and any blackbird species. Dave
Friday, December 18, 2020
Waterfowl diversity dropped a little this week with Wally finding only
Canada Goose,
Mallard,
Common Goldeneye and
Common Merganser. Two
Northern Harriers were found on Friday; hope they stay around for
tomorrow's CBC. Other highlights included
Bald Eagle,
Hairy Woodpecker,
American Kestrel,
American Tree Sparrow,
Dark-eyed Junco and
White-throated Sparrow. Dave
Friday, December 11, 2020
Wally still found a bit of diversity in the waterfowl around the Lab this week. Those found were
Canada Goose,
Northern Shoveler,
Mallard,
Common Goldeneye,
Hooded Merganser and
Common Merganser. Three
Bald Eagles were found including 2 adults and a juvenile that appeared to be
fairly close to maturity. His other highlight was an
Eastern Meadowlark. A
Great Horned Owl and an
American Kestrel also were birds
of note. Dave
Friday, December 4, 2020
From Wally's report for the week, it appears birding in the Lab has
slowed considerably. As he said of the birding, "Bit of a
lackluster
week for sure." He did search for possible crossbills, etc. He said,
"There is a fair amount of cone production and looks like some has
been
tampered with. The only thing I saw in conifers was juncos. Lots of
juncos. Lakes were also frozen over towards the end of last week,
so
waterfowl diversity dropped." Some of the birds he did find were
Northern Shoveler,
Mallard,
Common Goldeneye,
Hooded Merganser,
Sandhill Crane,
Cooper's Hawk,
Bald Eagle, RT Hawk and
Great Horned Owl. Dave
|
