January 05, 1989 - Annual Bird Count Logs 100 SpeciesPage 10A/The Suffolk Times /January 5, 1989
Annual Bird Count Logs 100 Species
By Paul Stoutenburqh
December 31st arrived and the big day
was here. We had over 50 men and
women knowledgeable about birds ready
to participate in Audubon's annual
Christmas bird count. Two parties were
sent to cover the area around Sag Harbor
and Noyack, three parties were to cover
Shelter Island and four to work the
North Fork from Orient Point to
Peconic. The weather looked good and
with some early observers out by 6 a.m.
to listen for owls, the stage was set for
the annual Orient count.
My area was the namesake of the
count, Orient. We gathered in the chilly
pre -dawn hours just down the causeway
at Latham's Farm Stand. From there we
could see the brightening sky to the east
we were all looking for. Years ago we
met at the same place in a blinding
snowstorm that luckily petered out and
saved the day. The Orient Park District
lay before us, beautiful in winter or
summer, and it would be our first at-
tack. Two of us would work the outer
beach and marsh while three others
would walk the perimeter counting ev-
ery bird in sight from the trim gadwalls
and black ducks usually found there to
sparrows and mockingbirds that would
be found in the brambles upland. Noth-
ing would be missed and if we were real
lucky we might even get a glimpse of a
clapper rail that we sometimes jump in
this area.
All Areas Covered
Later we'd cover other salt marshes,
beaches, open fields, backyards, feeders,
the open bay and Sound, and the woods.
Our cars would take us from one spot to
another, then it would be out and walk,
stop, look and listen, each keeping a
mental note of what he saw or heard.
These totals would later be tabulated on
a master sheet which would be turned in
at the end of our birding day.
For some the day would be an easy
one. For others like Jim House, who
walked the entire length of Orient State
Park to find one snow bunting and six
golden- crowned kinglets at its end, it
would be more exhausting. Others
would go knee deep in mud as they
slipped unexpectedly into a tlatil "n
out on the marsh. Almost everyone
would be nipped by the fierce, early
morning wind and, of course, legs, arms
and faces always seemed to be under at-
tack when briers and wild rose bushes
grabbed at clothing as we ventured into
the brush to eke out a Carolina wren or
Focus on
Nature
hopefully squeak out a wintering robin
or catbird.
That evening as the lists came in we
could see a general pattern taking place.
There was a scarcity of ducks and land
birds. Over all there was a fairly good
number of species, 100, but as men-
tioned the quantity of birds was low.
Our group working around Sag Har-
bor found a black- crowned night heron,
one of the summer night - stalkers of our
creeks. They also had canvasback ducks,
which we on the North Shore rarely see,
and purple sandpipers, our only truly
wintering shore bird. Out at the Orient
State Park my party spotted four black -
bellied plovers, 40 ruddy turnstones and
15 sanderlings along the protected south
shore of the park. These shore birds
should have been down in the Caribbean
by now but for some unknown reason
they stayed behind. Where we in the
past have seen thousands of scoters
along with goldeneyes, mergansers and
other sea ducks along the park shores we
saw very few ducks of any kind. To me
this is a sign of a poor food supply on
the bottom and I can only think it is a
result of the brown tide.
Geese Increase to West
On the other hand as the count moved
to the west, more and more Canada
geese were counted, 434 in the Peconic-
Southold area. Mallard ducks also in-
creased the same way but most of these
could be attributed to having been fed by
people living along our creeks.
It is nice to see most parties have
regularly seen red -tailed hawks. This
large hawk is seen soaring or perched on
trees and telephone poles throughout the
North Fork. The little sparrow hawk or
kestrel is our most numerous hawk and
he, too, can be seen perched along the
telephone wires looking for a meal.
We were lucky to get the three resi-
dents owls that live here: the little
screech owl, which most of us have
heard; and the big great horned owl, the
, Wor of the woods; and, of course, the
barn owl that is found roosting in heavy
evergreens, old buildings, and water
tanks. We saw none of the winter visi-
tors like the snowy, short- eared, long -
eared or saw -whet owls.
One of the Shelter Island groups
found a hermit thrush and then a rare
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9
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
SPOTTED SANDPIPER —This fragile little sandpiper nests occa-
sionally along our shores during the summer. Only once before, in 1947,
was this sandpiper recorded during the winter in New York State and
never on our Orient Christmas bird count.
boreal chickadee that comes from the
far, far north. How it wandered down
here no one knows. It has a brownish
cap rather than the typical black cap of
our local chickadee. They also had the
honor of sighting three bluebirds,
something that is pretty rare in its once -
native grounds here on Long Island.
But the best bird of all was one my
son Peter found at the park at the head
of Town Creek in Southold trying to
eke out a living along the cold water's
edge. It was a spotted sandpiper, never
before reported on our count, and only
once previously reported in the state.
In all, it was a good count but one
that makes us all a bit apprehensive as
to what is causing the low number of
birds in our.area. Oftentimes figures like
these tell us something about the world
we live in. The problem is, will we lis-
ten?
Following is a list of the 100
different birds seen on the Orient
Christmas Bird Count.
Red - throated Loon, Common Loon, Pied -
billed Grebe, Homed Grebe, Great Cormorant,
Double - crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron,
Black- crowned Night- Ileron, Mute Swan,
Brant, Canada Goose, American Black Duck,
Mallard, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American
Wigeon, Canvasback, Lesser Scaup, Oldsquaw,
Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, White - winged
Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Bufftehead,
Hooded Merganser, Red - breasted Merganser,
Northern Harrier, Sharp- shinned Hawk,
Cooper's Hawk, Red - tailed Hawk, Rough -
legged Hawk, American Kestrel, Ring- necked
Pheasant, Northern Bobwhite, American Coot,
Black- bellied Plover, Spotted Sandpiper ,
Ruddy Tumstone, Sanderling, Purple Sand-
piper, Common Snipe, American Woodcock,
Bonaparte's Gull, Ring - billed Gull, Herring
Gull, Great Black- backed Gull, Rock Dove,
Mourning Dove, Common Bam -Owl, Eastern
Screech -Owl, Great Homed Owl, Belted King-
fisher, Red - bellied Woodpecker, Downy
Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern
Flicker, Homed Lark, Blue Jay, American
Crow, Black- capped Chickadee, Boreal Chick-
adee, Tufted Titmouse, Red - breasted Nuthatch,
White- breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Car-
olina Wren, Winter Wren, Golden - crowned
Kinglet, Ruby- crowned Kinglet, Eastern Blue-
bird, Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Gray
Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Brown
Thrasher, Cedar Waxwing, European Starling,
Yellow - rumped Warbler, Northern Cardinal,
Rufous -sided Towhee, American Tree Sparrow,
Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Savannah
Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song
Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White- throated
Sparrow, White - crowned Sparrow, Dark -eyed
Junco, Snow Bunting, Red - winged Blackbird,
Eastern Meadowlark, Common Grackle,
Brown - headed Cowbird, House Finch, Pine
Siskin, American Goldfinch, and House Spar-
row.
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