Through the Window: December feeder birds

We had a new visitor this month, and I’ll tell you who right after the monthly list of birds.  A light-weight month, perhaps for weather, but more likely for the season.

Birds

Hairy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker
Photo ©2008 E. Talmage,
Huntington, Vermont

  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Tufted Titmouse
  • Hairy Woodpecker
  • Wild Turkey
  • Blue Jay
  • Dark-eyed Junco (12/7; about 18 inches of snow fell in the night of 12/6 and the morning of 12/7)
  • Downy Woodpecker
  • Northern Cardinal
  • White-breasted Nuthatch
  • Mourning Dove
  • American Tree Sparrow
  • White-throated Sparrow (12/10, a warmish, wet and windy day)
  • American Goldfinch (12/17)
  • Common Redpolls (4 of them on 12/17)

Mammals

  • Red Squirrel (of course)
  • and an Eastern Cottontail

Coincidentally, today (posting day) is  the Hinesburg/Huntington Christmas Bird Count. It’s rather foggy, actually, so not too much observed yet, I’m told. But the day is still young! (In fact, I just saw a wild turkey, because it was chuckling to itself and I looked up from typing this.)

Christmas Bird Count: Woodstock, Vermont

We’re reposting several Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may also become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and many final tallies are available through Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages.

Woodstock, Vermont

Dark-eyed Junco
Dark-eyed Junco

from Sally Laughlin, via e-mail
The Woodstock Count was held on the coldest day of the count period no doubt, Tuesday 12/29….wind-chill to 30 below. Both numbers of individuals and of species suffered (as did us birders!). We had only 32 species and 2227 individuals. But we had some firsts for our 35 year old count!

Species unusual for our count were:

Cedar Waxwing, 230- located in front of the Woodstock Elementary School
Snow Bunting, 12 – seen in both Plymouth (3) and South Woodstock (9)
Green Winged Teal, 1 – a first for our count
Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 – at a feeder on River Road, Killington
Pied-billed Grebe, 1 a first for our count, in an open pool in the Sherburne Marsh, Killington
Savannah Sparrow, 1 – in Woodstock

Species usually located on the Count, by numbers sighted:

Black-capped Chickadee, 608;
Blue Jay, 287;
European Starling, 229;
American Goldfinch, 188;
Mourning Dove, 130;
Dark-eyed Junco, 92;
Wild Turkey, 55;
American Crow, 52;
Mallard, 47;
White-breasted Nuthatch, 47;
Rock Pigeon, 45;
House Sparrow, 38;
Downy Woodpecker, 29;
Tufted Titmouse, 28;
Hairy Woodpecker, 22;
Northern Cardinal, 21;
American Tree Sparrow, 17;
House Finch, 14;
Raven, 11;
Purple Finch, 9;
Red-tailed Hawk, 3;
Ruffed Grouse, 3;
Black Duck, 2;
Brown Creeper, 2;
Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1;

accipiter sp., glimpsed by a feeder watcher catching a Mourning Dove,
unfortunately not identified to species.

Christmas Bird Count: Barnet, Northeast Kingdom, Vermont

Blue Jay
Blue Jay

We’re reposting several Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may also become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and/or at Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages.

Barnet, Vermont

from Thomas Berriman, via e-mail
Barnet CBC, New Year’s Day:  A record high 23 participants helped count the birds of the Northeast Kingdom on New Year’s day. Absolutely gorgeous weather, 25 degrees [F] with light snow falling and no winds throughout the day, aided the counters to find 41 species with an additional 2 species during count week. 338 miles of roads in the NEK were traveled with another 13 ¾ miles on foot.

Highlights

Among some of the highlights were: 1 Common Goldeneye, 3 Adult Bald Eagles, 2 Cooper’s Hawks, 2 Great black-backed Gulls, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 5 American Robins, 2 Northern Shrikes and 1 White-throated Sparrow. A complete list of birds seen or heard follows.

Count Results

Continue reading “Christmas Bird Count: Barnet, Northeast Kingdom, Vermont”

Christmas Bird Count: Rutland County, Vermont

We’re reposting several Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and/or at Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages. We’ll be happy to post final tallies when we receive them.

Rutland County, Vermont

from Roy Pilcher, via e-mail
RUTLAND COUNTY AUDUBON COUNT # 110/36
Boxing Day proved to be an unfortunate choice of date for our 36th annual Christmas Bird Count. Observer participation was negatively impacted. The traditional 8 field teams was reduced to 7, and their own. The anticipated sleet and rain did not materialize but winds of from 10-15 mph with gusts of 30-35 mph appeared to depress avian activity.

6333 individual birds were recorded, considerably less than the ten year running average of 9103. The species count of 43 (with 5 on Count Week) was well below the ten year running average of 49.5. Mallard and Common Merganser numbers set new highs.

White-breasted Nuthatch on suet
White-breasted Nuthatch

Species

Continue reading “Christmas Bird Count: Rutland County, Vermont”

Christmas Bird Count: Huntington, Hinesburg and Starksboro, Vermont (preliminary)

We’re reposting several preliminary Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and/or at Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages. We’ll be happy to post final tallies when we receive them.

Huntington, Hinesburg and Starksboro, Vermont (preliminary)

Red-breasted Nuthatch, turning to look at photographer
Red-breasted Nuthatch, turning to look at photographer

from Erin Talmage (Museum Executive Director) and Alison Wagner, via e-mail. Our group was in parts of Huntington, Hinesburg and Starksboro, and we conducted our count on Saturday, January 2, 2010.

Species

Continue reading “Christmas Bird Count: Huntington, Hinesburg and Starksboro, Vermont (preliminary)”

Christmas Bird Count: Lake Champlain/St. Albans (VTCS Count Circle), Vermont (preliminary)

Black-capped Chickadee
Black-capped Chickadee

We’re reposting several preliminary Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and/or at Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages. We’ll be happy to post final tallies when we receive them.

Lake Champlain/St. Albans, Vermont (preliminary)

from Ken Copenhaver, via e-mail
Here are preliminary results from the Lake Champlain/St. Albans CBC held on Dec. 20. Counts from several groups, including feeder-watchers, are not yet available. The VTCS count circle includes North Hero, Isle La Motte, and parts of Alburgh, Swanton, St. Albans, Georgia, Grand Isle, and Point Au Roche (NY).

Species

Continue reading “Christmas Bird Count: Lake Champlain/St. Albans (VTCS Count Circle), Vermont (preliminary)”

Christmas Bird Count: Saxton’s River, Vermont (preliminary)

We’re reposting several preliminary Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and/or at Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages. We’ll be happy to post final tallies when we receive them.

Saxton’s River, Vermont (preliminary)

from Don Clark, via e-mail

Pine Siskin
Pine Siskin

A belated, tentative (pending full details) Saxton’s River CC held 12/19/09

Species Seen

Continue reading “Christmas Bird Count: Saxton’s River, Vermont (preliminary)”

Christmas Bird Count: Bennington, Vermont (preliminary)

We’re reposting several preliminary Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and/or at Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages. We’ll be happy to post final tallies when we receive them.

Bennington, Vermont (preliminary)

from Kevin, via e-mail December 28, 2009
With only one or two possible counters left to give results[, we saw] 55 spp. yesterday, 12/27/09. Winter finches have yet to get down here but, a few “shoulda-been-gones” made up for them. Over all numbers down due to a wet morning.

Species

Continue reading “Christmas Bird Count: Bennington, Vermont (preliminary)”

Christmas Bird Count: Middlebury, Vermont (preliminary)

We’re reposting several preliminary Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and/or at Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages. We’ll be happy to post final tallies when we receive them.

Middlebury, Vermont, preliminary summary

from Jim Andrews, via e-mail December 21, 2009
As a group, our species numbers were on the low end (58 so far), primarily as a result of the loss of our open water. A Savannah Sparrow was one of the best birds of the count.

Note from Erin:

Parts of Lake Champlain (shores of Shoreham and Bridport ) are part of the [Middlebury] circle. When the lake isn’t frozen we get many more species of ducks, gulls, etc. That is why Ferrisburgh and Burlington almost always have a higher species count because they get those species!

Christmas Bird Count: Randolph, Vermont (preliminary)

We’re reposting several preliminary Christmas Bird Count results from neighboring towns. Email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org if you want us to post yours, too. Final results may become available on the VTBIRD mailing list and/or at Audubon’s 110th Christmas Bird Count pages.

Randolph, Vermont

The third Randolph CBC was conducted on Dec. 19, tallying 34 species/2094 individuals. Temperature at sunrise was -12[°F], only warming to -7 by 10:30 AM on Braintree Hill, eventually rising to a balmy +17. Numbers would have likely been lower this year without the addition of several new feeder watchers. The single new species for the count was a Carolina Wren which showed up at my feeder 3 days before the count, and is still present. (Luckily I [the poster] have the bird on video, negating the need for me to ask myself for a rare bird documentation form).
Continue reading “Christmas Bird Count: Randolph, Vermont (preliminary)”