Christmas Bird Count, Northfield West, 2011

Christmas Bird Count, Northfield West, 2011

Carl Participated in his first CBC in about 30 years.  His last one was in Utah in about 1980. 

 

Comments:    CBC bird count for Northfield West (area 8 in Mad Birders' circle) on 16 December from about 830AM-noon and 1 PM-315 PM. The team of four consisted of Bonnie Darby, Sandy Lewis, Patti Haynes & Carl Pinkham. It was a very warm 43 degrees with winds out of the North.  We also decided to count wind chimes, after noticing how many there were during our preview last weekend. The morning total was 34 (about 10 times the number of bird feeders with seed in them).

 

Morning count: 13 species

Great Blue Heron  1-Well seen as it flew in to Union Brook-Carl got a photo and GPS, Rock Pigeon  91, Hairy Woodpecker  1, Blue Jay  2, American Crow  9, Common Raven  2, Black-capped Chickadee  46, Red-breasted Nuthatch  2, White-breasted Nuthatch  1, Brown Creeper  2, Golden-crowned Kinglet  3, European Starling  62, Pine Siskin  12

 

Afternoon Count:  16 species

Protocol: Traveling 29.0 mile(s)
Comments:   We added 31 windchimes for a grand total of 65!

 

Rock Pigeon  2; Mourning Dove  2; Downy Woodpecker  1; Hairy Woodpecker  1; Blue Jay  12; American Crow  3, Common Raven  4, Black-capped Chickadee  22, Tufted Titmouse  2, White-breasted Nuthatch  2, Brown Creeper  2, American Robin  1, Dark-eyed Junco  2, Northern Cardinal  1, Purple Finch  1, American Goldfinch  2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/vt)

 

On the following day, Carl did a feeder count since the CBC group doing Northfield East the day before recorded only one chickadee at his feeder.

Here is high-count result of Carl's feeder watch-yard count on the 17th and 18th.

 

17 Dec:

1028-1046

Robin 1, Chickadee 6 (almost always at least one present) Dark-eyed Junco 6 (almost always at least one present) Blue Jay 1

 

1135-1141

Mourning Dove 7, Blue Jay 1, Chickadee 4, Purple Finch 2, Pine Siskin 2

 

18 Dec:

0730-0745

Blue Jay 13, European Starling 6, Hairy Woodpecker 1, Pine Siskin 1, Dark-eyed Junco 18, Mourning Dove 5, Purple Finch 3, Downy Woodpecker 1, Chickadee 2, American Crow 2

 

1350-1405 (1:50-2:05 PM)

Blue Jay 1, Purple Finch 1, Chickadee 2, Downy Woodpecker 1 (totally frozen tightly against a branch) And the most likely reason so few birds and the above behavior: Sharp-Shinned Hawk 1 (see photos below). He appeared to be feeding on a chickadee or dark-eyed junco.  Based upon what I saw of the remains at the beginning of the feast and feathers I picked up after it, I would guess the former.

 

I have 11 pics of his feeding (I'm thinking it's a male). Two are below.  He was about 20 feet off the ground in a tree about 25 feet from the feeders.

 

 

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