2005 Results
Green Mountain Audubon Society’s 58th annual Christmas Bird Count in the Burlington area was held Sunday, December 18, 2005, and what a day it was. Relatively warm temperatures and snow on the ground (not in the air) contributed to optimal conditions for counting and results were impressive.
We set high count records for 10 species: Snow Goose (1201), Winter Wren (3), Red-tailed Hawk (67), Rock Pigeon (1312), Eastern Screech Owl (8), Red-bellied Woodpecker (6), Downy Woodpecker (94), Tufted Titmouse (128), White-breasted Nuthatch (167), and Northern Cardinal (168). We tied records for five species: Green-winged Teal (1), Peregrine Falcon (1), Merlin (1), Hairy Woodpecker (53), and Common Raven (24). Rare count species included the fourth record for Ruby-crowned Kinglet, fifth record for Red-bellied Woodpecker, fifth record for Peregrine Falcon, and second record for Chipping Sparrow. We tied the record for the greatest number of species seen (72) and saw a total of 15,260 birds.
There is a lot of variation from year to year, but some things stand out this year. It was a good year for hawks. We broke the record on Red-tailed Hawk, tied on Peregrine Falcon and Merlin, and came close to matching the record on the other usual count species. Thanks to Allan Strong, we tallied three species of owls, breaking the record for the past with Eastern Screech Owl and finding Barred Owl and Great-horned Owl well-represented. Snow geese came to Vermont late this fall and seem to be staying later, as seen in the record number of 1,201 in the count.
We’re evaluating trends for duck species. There was not much wind on the count day, so ducks were not concentrated in sheltered areas and this might have resulted in lower numbers than usually seen. Mallard numbers were low compared with the last five years. Only 13 Greater Scaup were reported in this year’s count. Common Goldeneye were well-represented this year, but Common Merganser numbers seemed low, although that number has varied widely over the years. We saw about half of what we might see in a typical year for American Black Duck. The trend of species moving northward continues, reflected by the numbers of Tufted Titmouse, Northern Mockingbird, Northern Cardinal, and Red-bellied Woodpecker.
The forty-three people who participated in this year’s count were: Frank Rounds, Peter Riley, Mary Lou Pendergast, David Gusakov, James E. Osborn, Allan Strong, Peter Jones, Scott Schwenk, Frank Pendleton, Rebecca Pfeiffer, Linda McElvany, Andrew Webbe, Jenny Gundy, Tom Barber, Rick Renaud, Heidi Chapman-Renaud, Steve Parren, Silas Miller, Shirley Johnson, Robert Johnson, Ben Flemer, Juliette Juillerat, Carl Runge, Chip Wright, Eric Wood, Kristin Wood, Dick Park, Kathy Archer, Jack Price, Dave Hirth, Eric Lazarus, Joanna Hatt, Noah Perlut, Tom Lawrence, Christopher McBride, Elliott McBride, Marilynne Johnson, Jon Zurit, Ken Beebe, Pam Loranger, Bruce MacPherson, Jean Battelle, and Barbara Mines. In addition, Larry Haugh was the single feeder counter. Thank you to everyone who participated!
