ENHS Nature Trails January 2000 Article 3

100th Christmas Bird Count
by Herb Wisner

Really it's only the 55th count for Eugene. It started 100 years ago in New York City with several small groups of counters. The number of groups has steadily increased since. The day (Jan. 2) in Eugene was kind of dreary with a few short showers now and then but no deluge at least. There were 98 people in the field and 21 home counters who tallied 130 species and 116,726 individual birds. We probably missed a few but that's almost 981 birds per person. I doubt if the participants knew that - until now anyway. There are some good bragging rights in those figures and all those who helped are to be heartily thanked. That includes the kitchen crew at the Garden Club at the end of the day.

There were some surprises among the species ticked off. A Violet-green Swallow was most unexpected. The lone Tree Swallow wasn't a first time show but not a normal expect able in the winter. The same can be said of a Common Yellothroat that turned up west of town. Turkey Vultures were present again but we missed the Osprey this year though they had been reported a little earlier. A Northern Goshawk was a surprise in the southwest quadrant of the circle as was a Virginia Rail at Royal Ave. Thank goodness for those who get out to access the owl population . If it were up to most of us they wouldn't even make the list. As it is, however, all the expect able owls except the Saw-whet checked in with somebody.

I can recall one year when an American Dipper spent a period of time in the Willamette River opposite the UO campus but I'm not sure if it showed on the CBC. This year one definitely did at Island Park in Springfield so we welcome it to historic status. The area above LCC has been the place to find Wrentits through the years so it was a relief when one made the list this year. Wild Turkeys are obviously successful since they appear in greater numbers and more places each year. A Harris's Sparrow returned to the same yard that one occupied for a time last year. A team in west Eugene managed to pick a Brown-headed Cowbird out of the crowd of birds of blackness. A Horned Grebe was a good find in the vicinity of Fern Ridge Dam. Dunlins have been around in huge numbers for some time this winter. Fourteen thousand plus is almost monstrous. Gull experts rate along with the owl watchers. Without them we would have fewer species of gulls. They managed to find 7 different ones in various numbers with Ring-billed, as always, being the most abundant. Still, there were more unidentified gulls than were accurately labeled.

When one looks at the numbers of species turned up by each team it is easy to identify the choice areas. Dennis Arendt's team turned in a report with 80 species. Gary Tepfer's gang of mud sloggers on the east side of Fern Ridge Reservoir came in with next high of 73 species. Species numbers ranged down from there to 33. We won't identify the low areas specifically because we don't want observers to demand to be moved to a higher volume sector. All areas are really of direct importance to the count. Interestingly, home counters (collectively) turned in lists containing 43 species names, including hawks, kingfisher, ducks, turkeys. One problem that the collator of the count faces is how to resolve overlaps in observations of some species. Cormorants, swans, kites, eagles and harriers were likely candidates for rounding down some. It's kind of arbitrary and may result in unjustly stigmatizing these species. Fortunately, unlike people, the birds don't complain.

Species Total
Pied-billed Grebe 122
Horned Grebe 1
Western Grebe 26
White Pelican 2
Double-crst. Cormorant 401
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 180
Great Egret 166
Green Heron 3
Tundra Swan 3365
Canada Goose 52917
Wood Duck 40
Green-winged Teal 372
Mallard 3362
Northern Pintail 2936
Northern Shoveler 293
Gadwall 221
Eurasian Wigeon 6
American Wigeon 854
Canvasback 17
Redhead 4
Ring-necked Duck 197
Greater Scaup 12
Lesser Scaup 201
Bufflehead 60
Hooded Merganser 27
Common Merganser 173
Ruddy Duck 100
Turkey Vulture 2
White-tailed Kite 8
Bald Eagle 5
Northern Harrier 27
Sharp-shinned Hawk 10
Cooper's Hawk 11
Northern Goshawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Red-tailed Hawk 124
Rough-legged Hawk 13
American Kestrel 58
Merlin 8
Ring-necked Pheasant 26
Wild Turkey 142
California Quail 56
Mountain Quail 8
Virginia Rail 1
American Coot 330
Black-bellied Plover 123
Killdeer 607
Greater Yellowlegs 46
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Western Sandpiper 30
Least Sandpiper count period
Dunlin 14578
Long-billed Dowitcher 15
Common Snipe 157
Mew Gull 100
Ring-billed Gull 2152
California Gull 169
Herring Gull 27
Thayer's Gull 6
Western Gull 9
Glaucous-winged Gull 302
Rock Dove 1252
Mourning Dove 194
Barn Owl 4
Western Screech Owl 8
Great Horned Owl 1
Northern Pygmy Owl 2
Short-eared Owl 2
Anna's Hummingbird 13
Belted Kingfisher 25
Acorn Woodpecker 10
Red-breasted Sapsucker 6
Downy Woodpecker 35
Hairy Woodpecker 3
N (Yel-sh x Red Sh) Flicker 1
Northern Red-shaft. Flicker 297
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Tree Swallow 1
Violet-green Swallow 1
Steller's Jay 198
Western Scrub Jay 724
American Crow 1196
Common Raven 501
Black-cap Chickadee 698
Chestnut-back. Chickadee 51
Bushtit 368
Red-breasted Nuthatch 72
White-breasted Nuthatch 6
Brown Creeper 60
Bewick's Wren 71
Winter Wren 48
Marsh Wren 10
American Dipper 1
Gold.-crown Kinglet 452
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 280
Western Bluebird 129
Mountain Bluebird 1
Hermit Thrush 9
American Robin 2782
Varied Thrush 179
Wrentit 1
American Pipit 223
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Shrike 3
European Starling 7012
Hutton's Vireo 3
Orange-cr. Warbler 1
Yel-rump. (Myrtle) Warb 95
Yel-rump Warb (form?) 8
Townsend's Warbler 28
Common Yellowthroat 1
Spotted Towhee 225
Savannah Sparrow 33
Fox Sparrow 240
Song Sparrow 767
Lincoln's Sparrow 16
Swamp Sparrow 1
White-throat. Sparrow 14
Gold-crown. Sparrow 978
White-cr. Sparrow 250
Harris's Sparrow 1
Dark-eye (Sl. Col) Junco 4
Dark-eye (OR) Junco 3005
Red-winged Blackbird 375
Western Meadowlark 78
Brewer's Blackbird 2032
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Purple Finch 51
House Finch 713
Pine Siskin 190
American Goldfinch 224
House Sparrow 339
Gull species? 2612
peep species 2230
Egyptian Goose 2

Within the count period (3 days either side of count day):
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Curlew
Peregrine

Total number of birds:
116746

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