ENHS Nature Trails Mar 99 Article 3

Interesting info from the Christmas Bird Count (Jan. 3,1999)
by Herb Wisner

As usual, it's difficult to draw any particular conclusions from the data gathered on species present or numbers of representatives for each species. We leave readers to draw some conclusions of their own. The weather was reasonably good except for the mornings dense fog that concealed some of the water fowl as they took off from various bodies of water. The afternoon was sunny and a little cool (40's).

First the more or less unusual species or numbers. None were completely new to the count but are not necessarily seen every year. We had more Pied-billed Grebes than usual, second highest since our counts began in about 1945. Double-crested Cormorants continued to hold up in numbers. They have shown an increase in the past several years. Since they are fish eaters we wonder what sort of rations they are finding in the rivers where most of them are seen. There are other species that compete at this dining table. Eurasian Wigeons show up in very scattered fashion in the valley every year, three for us is more than normal.

Turkey Vultures seem to be getting the word out that a trip south for the winter is not all that important . At least 7 hung around this year. The same can be said about Ospreys. There were at least 3. Both of the latter species have been seen this winter in other places up the valley from Eugene. Bald Eagles are regular, but 11 exceeds the expected by quite a bit. Eleven Cooper's Hawks must be making life miserable for a lot of the "dickey birds" (small song birds that are the favorite target of these hawks). Red-shouldered Hawks have put in an appearance during the past few winters and are being seen in more than one count area. They are known to breed along the southern Oregon coast so perhaps that's where ours come from. They don't stay around here for the summer however. Coots are rather ubiquitous birds, never scarce. We had the 2nd highest ever with 689. Least Sandpipers at 286, set a record. Lots of Dunlins.

Very few of our counters get out during the dark hours. Even so, those that did tallied 11 Great Horned Owls - a tie for highest ever. Sixteen Anna's hummers are nice. Two Tree Swallows appeared to be making it. Other above average numbers were counted for: Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Brown Creepers (kind of tricky to see since they hug tree trunks very closely), Western Bluebirds (with 154 almost a record they were a delight to see). We hope their breeding season will be successful). Hermit Thrushes set a record with 28. There were plenty of Song Sparrow and no shortage of Fox Sparrows. White-throated Sparrows are being found in many places this winter. With 14 counted we were just 2 shy of the record. One Harris Sparrow is carrying on a tradition of showing up in each of the last 4 years.

What about low numbers? Water fowl in general, including Canada Geese and Tundra Swans were down but we think that was an artifact of the foggy conditions in the morning when they are more easily seen on Fern Ridge Reservoir. You can check the numbers on the complete list for the following "slackers." Pheasants, Killdeer, Hairy Woodpecker, European Starling (there were plenty of them but not as many tallied as usual - no complaint, it couldn't happen to a more deserving species), Savannah Sparrow. Red-winged and Brewers Blackbirds were down for some reason. And, lastly, Purple Finches and American Goldfinches were fewer than normal.

After reading the above send in your comments or write about YOUR birds.

Tally of the Eugene Christmas bird count, January 3, 1999.

Pied-billed Grebe____________ 86

Western Grebe______________13

American White Pelican________ 2

Dbl-crest. Cormorant________ 255

Great Blue Heron___________ 133

Great Egret________________ 18

Green Heron________________ 2

Tundra Swan_____________ 1357

Canada Goose___________10280

Wood Duck________________ 46

Green-winged Teal__________281

Mallard__________________1507

Northern Pintail_____________ 90

Northern Shoveler__________ 208

Gadwall__________________ 107

American Wigeon___________743

Canvasback________________ 8

Ring-necked Duck___________ 56

Greater Scaup________________1

Lesser Scaup_______________ 57

Bufflehead_________________16

Hooded Merganser___________

Common Merganser_________ 111

Ruddy Duck________________ 54

Unidentified Ducks_________ 5131

Turkey Vulture_______________ 7

Osprey _______________ 3

White-tailed Kite_______________10

Bald Eagle__________________11

Northern Harrier______________ 56

Sharp-shinned Hawk__________ 12

Cooper’s Hawk_______________10

Red-shouldered Hawk__________ 3

Red-tailed Hawk______________ 99

Rough-legged Hawk____________1

American Kestrel______________55

Merlin_______________________ 2

Peregrine Falcon_______________1

Ring-necked Pheasant__________22

Ruffed Grouse_________________ 1

Wild Turkey__________________ 78

California Quail________________ 4

Mountain Quail________________1

Virginia Rail__________________ 1

American Coot_______________ 689

Black-bellied Plover___________ 5

Killdeer_____________________516

Greater Yellowlegs______________23

Spotted Sandpiper______________ 2

Least Sandpiper______________ 206

Dunlin_____________________4065

Long-billed Dowitcher___________ 24

Common Snipe________________ 44

Mew Gull_____________________ 25

Ring-billed Gull________________737

California Gull__________________ 24

Herring Gull____________________ 4

Thayer’s Gull___________________ 2

Western Gull___________________ 2

Glaucous-winged Gull____________ 37

Unidentified Gulls_____________ 1767

Rock Dove___________________ 798

Mourning Dove_________________80

Common Barn Owl_______________ 2

Western Screech Owl_____________ 8

Great Horned Owl_______________ 11

Northern Pygmy Owl______________1

Short-eared Owl_________________1

Northern Saw-whet Owl___________ 2

Anna’s Hummingbird____________ 16

Belted Kingfisher______________ 19

Acorn Woodpecker_____________ 20

Red-breasted Sapsucker_________ 8

Downy Woodpecker____________ 42

Hairy Woodpecker______________ 4

Northern Flicker______________ 291

Pileated Woodpecker___________ 3

Tree Swallow_________________ 2

Steller’s Jay________________ 206

Scrub Jay__________________ 514

American Crow_____________ 1004

Common Raven______________ 43

Black-capped Chickadee______ 585

Chestnut-backed Chickadee___ 119

Bushtit____________________ 381

Red-breasted Nuthatch________ 61

White-breasted Nuthatch_________ 6

Brown Creeper________________ 50

Bewick’s Wren_________________61

Winter Wren__________________ 74

Marsh Wren___________________12

Golden-crowned Kinglet________ 832

Ruby-crowned Kinglet__________ 362

Western Bluebird______________154

Hermit Thrush_________________ 28

American Robin______________ 3016

Varied Thrush________________ 146

Wrentit_______________________ 4

American Pipit_________________ 89

Cedar Waxwing________________ 42

Northern Shrike_________________ 4

European Starling___________ 10326

Hutton’s Vireo__________________ 8

Or-crowned Warbler_____________ 2

Yellow-rump. Warbler___________ 132

Townsends Warbler_____________ 50

Spotted Towhee______________ 320

Savannah Sparrow_____________ 5

Fox Sparrow_________________ 317

Song Sparrow_______________ 1058

Lincoln’s Sparrow______________ 18

White-thr. Sparrow_____________ 14

Golden-crowned Sparrow_______ 714

White-crowned Sparrow_________205

Harris Sparrow__________________ 1

Dark-eyed Junco_____________ 1822

Red-winged Blackbird___________449

Western Meadowlark_____________55

Brown-headed Cowbird__________ 18

Brewer’s Blackbird_____________ 486

Purple Finch___________________20

House Finch__________________436

Pine Siskin____________________73

Lesser Goldfinch_______________ 17

American Goldfinch______________58

House Sparrow ________________ 423

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