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Sing along with the Christmas Bird Count

Sing along with the Christmas Bird Count

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Birds, Outdoors.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – On the eighth day of Christmas, the Audubon Society counted 12 palm warblers, 11 (plus eight) northern mockingbirds, 10 red-bellied woodpeckers, nine blue-gray gnatcatchers, eight common loons, seven house finches, six snowy egrets, five white ibis, four (plus two) house sparrows, three American white pelicans, two wood storks and a lesser black-backed gull.

The birds were tallied on a warm Jan. 2 by volunteers with the Manatee County Audubon Society during the annual Fort De Soto Christmas Bird Count, which includes birds on Anna Maria Island.

Sing along with the Christmas Bird Count
A spotted sandpiper, a shorebird that winters in Florida, was found during the Christmas Bird Count. – Kathryn Young | Submitted

The team of Stu Wilson, John Ginaven, Kathryn Young, Marcy Klein and Pam Koepf scoured the Island north of 46th Street and found shorebirds commonly seen on AMI’s coastline, but also unusual finds, such as two bald eagles.

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They identified 48 species, a little low compared to the average of 54 species, Wilson said, attributing the decrease to continued warm weather in the northern U.S., keeping some birds from migrating south.

Each individual count takes place in a 15-mile-wide circle and is led by a compiler responsible for safely organizing volunteers and submitting observations to Audubon. Within each circle, participants tally all birds seen or heard that day – not just the species, but individuals, to provide a clearer idea of the health of that particular population.

Sing along with the Christmas Bird Count
A red-breasted merganser swims off Anna Maria City Pier looking for fish during the Christmas Bird Count. – Kathryn Young | Submitted

The 112 years’ worth of data collected during the Christmas Bird Counts contributes to one of two large sets of data that inform ornithologists and conservation biologists about what conservation action is required to protect birds and their habitats.

Here’s the rest of the AMI bird numbers:

 

sandwich tern 180

fish crow 140

European starling 130

laughing gull 130

sanderling 110

royal tern 87

willet 57

ring-billed gull 45

brown pelican 42

common grackle 32

double-crested cormorant 24

red knot 24

mourning dove 23

osprey 21

Eurasian collared-dove 20

herring gull 20

Forster’s tern 18

nanday parakeet 17

brown-headed cowbird 14

ruddy turnstone 9

great blue heron 8

turkey vulture 6

red-breasted merganser 5

rock pigeon 5

great egret 3

downy woodpecker 2

black-bellied plover 2

prairie warbler 2

American kestrel 1

red-shouldered hawk 1

spotted sandpiper 1

magnificent frigatebird 1

blue-headed vireo 1

gray catbird 1

yellow-rumped warbler 1

Red knot

Christmas bird count results in

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Birds, Outdoors.

There were no French hens, geese a-laying, swans a-swimming or partridges in pear trees, but local Audubon volunteers found plenty of birds in the 118th Christmas bird count on New Year’s Eve.

Six birders found more than 800 birds of 51 species in the count, including shorebird species familiar to beachgoers like terns, sanderlings, red knots, plovers, gulls and brown pelicans, which topped the list of most commonly seen birds at 94 individuals.

Fish crows took second place, with 69 observed. Mourning doves placed third, with 64 counted, while turkey vultures were nudged into fourth place at 63.

The highlight was the discovery of two bald eagles, said John van Zandt, of Audubon’s Fort DeSoto Circle, which includes Anna Maria Island.

No one spotted a razorbill, he said – the seabird, which resembles a penguin, was added to the list when several unexpectedly migrated here in 2013 from the North Atlantic, possibly due to storms.

Other common birds observed were ducks, sparrows, warblers, starlings, crows, jays, kestrels, woodpeckers, doves and pigeons.

The annual count began in 1900 when Dr. Frank Chapman, founder of Bird-Lore, which evolved into Audubon magazine, suggested an alternative to holiday hunts, proposing that people count birds instead of killing them.

Since then, the National Audubon Society has provided data on trends in bird populations in the U.S., Canada, Central and South America, Bermuda, the West Indies and the Pacific Islands.

Like canaries in coal mines, birds are indicators of overall environmental health, according to Audubon, which has declared 2018 the Year of the Bird, marking the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act with National Geographic, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and BirdLife International.

Visit www.BirdYourWorld.org to learn simple ways to help birds this year.

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