Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 17:35:05 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Peter Webb Subject: Baltimore Harbor Christmas Bird Count 12/27/03 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sorry I've been so long putting this all together, but here finally are the totals for the Baltimore Harbor Christmas Bird Count, Saturday, December 27, 2003. The twenty fifth annual Baltimore Harbor Christmas Bird Count took place Saturday, December 27, 2003 with 15 observers in 8 parties counting 12,661 birds and 92 species. The numbers for observers, parties and hours of observation, especially the foot-hours, are all new lows and many of the following species totals with "new lows" are actually reflections of the all-time low coverage rather than population levels of the bird species reported. Any new highs, therefore, are especially significant given the scant coverage. Some of those new highs include both Great and Double-crested Cormorants, 3 Black Scoters (females, south harbor area), 2 Black Vultures (Essex area; years ago, any vultures at all were remarkable for the Count area on the coastal plain), and 66 Rusty Blackbirds split between the Fort Howard/Black Marsh area and nearby Hart-Miller Island. We start with one of those new highs, with the checklist in the current AOU order: qty SPECIES 1081 Can. Goose NEW HIGH, previous high was 932 in 1998 12 M Swan 2 Gadwall 14 Wigeon 23 Black Duck " new low * " 224 Mallard " new low * " 83 N Shoveler 1 Green-winged Teal 1590 Canvasback 1 Redhead 9 G Scaup 267 L Scaup 100 Scaup sp 3 Black Scoter NEW HIGH 1 Long-tailed Duck 227 Bufflehead 38 Com. Goldeneye 21 Hooded Merg 206 Red-br. Merg 405 Ruddy Duck 2 Pheasant 6 R-T Loon 3 C Loon 6 P-B Grebe 2 Horned Grebe 294 D-C Corm. NEW HIGH, prev high was 217 in 2001 3 Gt Corm NEW HIGH, prev high was 2 in '98 and 2002 24 G B Heron 2 Black Vulture NEW HIGH (singles in 3 prev. years) 14 Turkey Vult. (high was 29 in 1884) 6 Bald Eagle (adult) 2 Bald Eagle (immature) 9 Bald Eagle (total) (high was 17 in 2001) 2 Harrier 11 Sharp-shin NEW HIGH 1 Cooper's 5 Red-should. 6 Red-tail " new low * " 3 Kestrel " new low * " 1 Merlin 1 Virginia Rail 53 Coot 10 Killdeer 17 Western Sandpiper 1 Am. Woodcock 171 Bonaparte's Gull 2771 Ring-billed 949 Herring Gull 2 Lesser Black-back 124 Great Black-back 10 Forster's Tern 936 Pigeon ("Rock Dove") 110 Mourning Dv " new low * " almost certainly coverage 6 Belted Kingfisher " new low * " 23 Red-bellied 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 15 Downy Woodpecker (low was all of one, 1984) 5 Hairy 16 Flicker 51 Blue Jay " new low * " 101 Am. Crow " new low * " 11 Fish Crow 104 Crow Sp. 49 Car. Chickadee 19 Titmouse " new low * " hard to say if it's real 3 White-br Nuthatch 1 Brn Creeper 17 Car. Wren " new low * " 5 Winter Wren 1 Marsh Wren 1 G C Kinglet " new low * " but I've seen 'em around 8 R C Kinglet 6 Hermit Thrs 186 Robin 2 Gray Catbird 31 Mockingbird " new low * " 544 Starling (low was 500 last year, 2002) 7 American Pipit 9 Myrtle Warb 23 Towhee 13 Tree Sparrow 8 Field Sparrow 3 Savannah Sparrow 1 Fox Sparrow 85 Song Sp. 12 Swamp Sp. 259 White-throat 91 Junco " new low * " but I've seen 'em around 50 Cardinal 630 Red-winged 66 Rusty Blackbird 28 C. Grackle 1 Cowbird " new low * " 49 House Finch 32 Goldfinch " new low * " but I've seen 'em around 231 Eur. House Sparrow 92 SPECIES 12661 BIRDS 15 Observers NEW LOW 8 Parties NEW LOW 710 START TIME 1700 STOP TIME 43 Total Hours NEW LOW 35 Foot Hours NEW LOW 1 Car Hours NEW LOW 18 Total Miles NEW LOW 12 Foot Miles NEW LOW Car Miles NEW LOW 27 Min Temp 51 Max Temp Min Wind 10 Max Wind NNW Direction clear Sky AM clear Sky PM Snow Cover Still Water frozen Moving Water open 15 Observers total NEW LOW Pete Webb, compiler Baltimore, MD home (after 7 weekdays) pwebb@bcpl.net work (M-F 830-5) pew@niroinc.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================