Sorry for the delay in posting, I didn't have time for an analysis yesterday.?
Sitting on Our Assateague participated in the Big Sit! for the 6th consecutive year and had a great day!? We ended up with 84 species which beats our average of 81.? We added 3 new species to the cumulative list bringing it up to 146.? For the first time we had a sitter present at midnight (Jim Stasz) and then an unprecedented number of people in the 3-6am range.? Unfortunately the night flight was minimal, but we had a good time anyway.? We called it a day at noon, which is pretty typical as the landbirding gets fairly slow.?
Big Sitters this year include:? Jim Stasz, Zach Baer, Mark Hoffman, Jim Brighton, Bill Hubick, Matt Tillet, Tom Feild, Kevin Graff, Dan Haas, Jean and Larry Fry, Rick Timm(?) (from PA), Lance Biechele, Frode Jacobsen, and Kim and Matt Hafner.? A number of other people stopped by whose names I didn't catch and if they are reading this, please send me an email and I will include you in the official submission.
The night was rather slow, but things picked up immediately at dawn.? There was a large flight of Myrtle Warblers (we probably underestimated), but other warblers were difficult to pick out.? The waterfowl flight was pretty good with lots of cormorants and a large raft of scoters off the point.? Shorebirds were our toughest group of birds this year, only 4 species.? Highlights included Pine Siskins, a couple good looks at Cape May Warblers, the raft of scoters, and always being up to look up and see Myrtle Warblers.
The full list is below with the number of years (x/6) we have seen it on the sit.? At the end I have a list of misses including the 4 birds missed from the circle.
Snow Goose 240 (3/6)
Ross's Goose 1 (1/6) new to list, Jim Stasz picked it out of a flock of Snows over South Point
Brant 12 (3/6)
Canada Goose 10 (6/6)
American Black Duck 7 (6/6)
Northern Pintail 8 (5/6)
Greater Scaup 1 (2/6) adult male spent the day with a mixed scoter flock in the bay
Surf Scoter 164 (4/6)
Black Scoter 4 (5/6)
Bufflehead 1 (1/6) new to count, feeding in the bay
Common Loon 15 (6/6)
Brown Pelican 14 (6/6)
Double-crested Cormorant 1793 (6/6) good flight, just couldn't pick out a Great...
Great Blue Heron 6 (5/6) all but 1 at night
Great Egret 2 (6/6)
Snowy Egret 1 (6/6) heron flight was thin
Tricolored Heron 5 (6/6)
Black-crowned Night-Heron 3 (4/6)
Black Vulture 25 (5/6) all over South Point
Turkey Vulture 10 (6/6) same as above
Osprey 6 (6/6)
Bald Eagle 4 (5/6) all over South Point
Northern Harrier 3 (5/6)
Accipiter sp. 3 (1/6) new to count, but not added to cumulative since we've had Sharp-shinned Hawk previously, all were over South Point
Red-tailed Hawk 1 (3/6) over South Point
Merlin 3 (3/6)
Peregrine Falcon 1 (6/6) a perk of being on Assateague
Killdeer 2 (5/6)
Sanderling 5 (3/6)
Dunlin 3 (5/6)
American Woodcock 1 (3/6) flushed at first light
Laughing Gull 134 (6/6)
Ring-billed Gull 3 (6/6)
Herring Gull 14 (6/6)
Great Black-backed Gull 3 (6/6)
Caspian Tern 6 (6/6)
Forster's Tern 2 (6/6)
Royal Tern 21 (6/6)
Mourning Dove 7 (5/6)
Belted Kingfisher 2 (6/6)
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 (3/6) always odd to see out on the island, made several passes by the point
Northern Flicker 36 (5/6)
Eastern Phoebe 1 (3/6)
Blue-headed Vireo 1 (2/6)
Fish Crow 200 (4/6)
Tree Swallow 4 (6/6)
Red-breasted Nuthatch 14 (2/6)
Brown Creeper 1 (2/6) a bird that looks odd when it flys across the parking lot
Carolina Wren 4 (6/6)
Winter Wren 1 (2/6)
Golden-crowned Kinglet 6 (5/6)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 (3/6)
Gray-cheeked Thrush 3 (4/6)
American Robin 23 (3/6)
Gray Catbird 6 (6/6)
Brown Thrasher 2 (5/6)
European Starling 7 (6/6)
Cedar Waxwing 2 (5/6)
Cape May Warbler 10 (5/6)
Black-throated Blue Warbler 4 (3/6)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 221 (6/6)
Black-throated Green Warbler 1 (5/6)
Prairie Warbler 1 (3/6)
Yellow Palm Warbler 1 (3/6) we always have more Westerns
Western Palm Warbler 12 (6/6)
Blackpoll Warbler 2 (5/6) the one year we missed Blackpoll we had flover Baypoll sp.
American Redstart 2 (5/6)
Common Yellowthroat 1 (4/6) night flyover
Eastern Towhee 3 (4/6)
Chipping Sparrow 1 (3/6)
Savannah Sparrow 4 (3/6)
Song Sparrow 1 (5/6)
Swamp Sparrow 1 (1/6) new to the count, don't usually find many out at the point, though they can be common in the marshes
White-throated Sparrow 2 (4/6)
Dark-eyed Junco 1 (3/6)
Northern Cardinal 2 (5/6)
Indigo Bunting 2 (5/6)
Bobolink 1 (5/6)
Red-winged Blackbird 14 (6/6)
Eastern Meadowlark 13 (4/6)
Boat-tailed Grackle 21 (6/6)
Brown-headed Cowbird 20 (3/6)
Purple Finch 2 (3/6)
House Finch 1 (5/6)
Pine Siskin 4 (2/6) most common finch!
Seen outside the circle: Semipalmated Plover, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, and Fox Sparrow (would have been new to the count)
Worst Misses (birds seen 5/6 years):
Little Blue Heron - evidence of the poor heron flight
Swainson's Thrush - night flight was slow, but it usually doesn't matter for Swainson's
Bad Misses (bird seen 3-4/6 years):
Mallard (3/6) - not common Assateague, we usually see them flying around South Point
Sharp-shinned Hawk (4/6) - we got Accipiter sp. instead
Black-bellied Plover (3/6)
Semipalmated Plover (3/6) - seen outside the circle
Greater Yellowlegs (3/6)
Rock Pigeon (3/6) - there is a flock on South Point, we just need them to fly around more
Red-eyed Vireo (3/6) - always possible on a good flight day like Sunday
Northern Mockingbird (4/6) - present in the campground, but not a frequent visitor to the point
Common Grackle (3/6) - always hit or miss on the island
American Goldfinch (3/6) - seems like a worse miss on a day with Purple Finch and Pine Siskins!
Hope to see you next year!
Matt Hafner
Blacksburg, VA
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