CBC Preliminary Results Port Gamble 18 Dec 1999

The species total is unofficially 116 species and 16755 individuals with two or three feeder counts not recorded.

I believe that this is the first year that the count was held with good weather conditions. We did not experience rain, wind or snow as in previous years. Primarily because of this fact the count numbers of all land birds and hawks exceeded the averages for the count with almost no exceptions. There were unusually high numbers for all woodpecker species, chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, thrush species, sparrows and warblers. Notable high numbers include Ring-necked Pheasant- 19, Merlin-4, Red-breasted Nuthatch-43, Marsh Wren-17, Varied Thrush-207, and Lincoln?s Sparrow-7. There were several new species for the count including Northern Goshawk, Peregrine Falcon, Saw-whet Owl, Glaucous Gull (CW), Western Bluebird and Brown-headed Cowbird.

Water bird counts were pretty much the opposite as the land birds and were below average as a whole. Notable exceptions include Horned Grebe-284, Common Murre-636, and Rhinoceros Auklet-33. Very low counts for all grebes other than horned, Pelagic Cormorant, most duck species, and most shorebirds were noted. Several dabbling duck species were missed entirely.

Scott Hall

whall at silverlink.net

Bremerton, WA