Hi Everybody,

The 47th Lower Kent County CBC was held Sunday, 19 December. Counters contended with dense fog in the morning, rain in the afternoon, and blowing snow by the end of the countdown dinner, but we did manage a total of 118 species and 109,778 individuals. A number of low counts (e.g. vultures, blackbirds) were probably due to poor counting conditions rather than actual declines. The complete list, with annotations, follows:

Red-throated Loon - 4
Common Loon - 21
Pied-billed Grebe - 1
Horned Grebe - CW (first miss on count day in 25 years)
Double-crested Cormorant - 12
Great Cormorant - CW
Great Blue Heron - 55
BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON - 2 (12th count record; ties record high count)
Black Vulture - 11
Turkey Vulture - 185
Snow Goose - 3177
CACKLING GOOSE - 5
Canada Goose - 51,817
Mute Swan - 161
Tundra Swan - 541
Wood Duck - 2
Gadwall - 32
American Wigeon - 103
American Black Duck - 350
Mallard - 7242 (fourth highest count and the highest since 1980)
BLUE-WINGED TEAL - 1 (12th count report, first since 1999)
Northern Shoveler - 275
Northern Pintail - 101
Green-winged Teal - 48
Canvasback - 2607
Redhead - 7
Ring-necked Duck - 167
Greater Scaup - 741
Lesser Scaup - 4581
scaup sp. - 16,089
White-winged Scoter - 4
Black Scoter - 1
Long-tailed Duck - 4
Bufflehead - 399
Common Goldeneye - 531
Hooded Merganser - 2
Common Merganser - 7
Red-breasted Merganser - 15
Ruddy Duck - 1299
OSPREY - 1 (FIRST for count)
Bald Eagle - 64
Northern Harrier - 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 9
Cooper's Hawk - 8
Red-shouldered Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 37
American Kestrel - 9
Merlin - 1
PEREGRINE FALCON - 1 (fourth count record)
Ring-necked Pheasant - 3
Wild Turkey - 29 (record high count)
King Rail - 1
Virginia Rail - 2
American Coot - 3
Killdeer - 54
Wilson's Snipe - 1
American Woodcock - 3
LAUGHING GULL - 1 (15th count record)
Bonaparte's Gull - 3
Ring-billed Gull - 2213
Herring Gull - 583
Great Black-backed Gull - 76
Rock Pigeon - 77
Mourning Dove - 363
Eastern Screech-Owl - 31
Great Horned Owl - 34
Barred Owl - 7
Belted Kingfisher - 27
Red-headed Woodpecker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 156 (3rd highest count)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 12
Downy Woodpecker - 87
Hairy Woodpecker - 34
Northern Flicker -111
Pileated Woodpecker - 6 (record high count)
Blue Jay - 546
American Crow - 128
Horned Lark - 127
Carolina Chickadee - 251
Tufted Titmouse - 156
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 16
White-breasted Nuthatch - 65 (highest count since 1975)
Brown Creeper - 14
Carolina Wren - 172
Winter Wren - 5
Marsh Wren - 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 24
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 20
Eastern Bluebird - 34
Hermit Thrush - 15
American Robin - 426 (second highest count, record was in 1978)
Gray Catbird - 5
Northern Mockingbird - 161
Brown Thrasher - 6
European Starling - 3404
American Pipit - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 78
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 68
Pine Warbler - 1
Eastern Towhee - 72
American Tree Sparrow - 1
Chipping Sparrow - 1
Field Sparrow - 57
Savannah Sparrow - 125 (record high count)
Fox Sparrow - 8
Song Sparrow - 701
Swamp Sparrow - 145
White-throated Sparrow - 2207
White-crowned Sparrow - 16
Dark-eyed Junco - 901
Northern Cardinal - 699
Red-winged Blackbird - 3350
Eastern Meadowlark - 17
Common Grackle - 216
Brown-headed Cowbird - 253
Purple Finch - 4
House Finch - 176
Pine Siskin - 2
American Goldfinch - 146
Evening Grosbeak 24 (came in to screech-owl tape & vanished)
House Sparrow - 274

Thank you to all who came out in the fog and rain to make this count a success.

Nancy Martin & Walter Ellison

23460 Clarissa Road
Chestertown, MD 21620
phone: 410-778-9568
e-mail: 

"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little")

"Are there *ever* enough birds?" - Connie Hagar as quoted by Edwin Way Teale in "Wandering through Winter"