The Seattle CBC was January 1, 2000, a fitting start to the new millennium
(or merely the year when the digit in the 1000 place changed, for all those
who obsess about such things). I don't have all the feeder watch results,
but they shouldn't radically change the picture.

Total species this year: 122. The recent 10-year average is 122.1; the
maximum was 129 in 1977.

Total numbers so far (without the feeder watch numbers): 54,421. The
10-year average is 49, 214. The maximum was 58,310 in 1994, which was also
the previous record crow year. Crow numbers have had a big effect on total
numbers in recent years.

Highlights were a Clark's Grebe (first time ever seen on the Seattle CBC)
and a Wilson's Warbler, which has been seen only twice before.

New high numbers were set for Red-throated Loon, Pacific Loon, Canada
Goose, Ring-necked duck, Harlequin Duck, Bald Eagle, Merlin, Sanderling, and
Crow.

Kelly Cassidy
Seattle, WA
lostriver at seanet.com

THE COMPLETE LIST:

The number after the species indicates the count this year. The numbers
in parentheses are the previous 10-year average and the maximum numbers
since 1991. The phrase "High this year" or "Low this year" indicates
whether the species was unusually high or low compared to the recent 10-year
average.

Red-throated Loon, 34 (14.8, 19) ** A new record
Pacific Loon, 66 (8.7, 41) ***A new record
Common Loon, 14 (12.6, 22)
Pied-billed Grebe, 72 (126.9, 176) (Low this year)
Horned Grebe, 321 (250.1, 450)
Red-necked Grebe, 105 (145.7, 260) (A bit low)
Eared Grebe, 3 (4.7, 52)
Western Grebe, 1,765 (1,925.7, 2,548)
Clark's Grebe, 1 (0, 0) ***** A first for the
Seattle CBC; seen in the Duwamish area by Steve Dang's party
Double-cr. Cormorant, 440 (537.2, 751)
Brant's Cormorant, 30 (5.6, 47) (High this year)
Pelagic Cormorant, 16 (39.4, 83) (Low this year)
Great Blue Heron, 42 (50.2, 129)
Mute Swan, 1 (1.9, 6)
Snow Goose, 2 (0.1, 240) (The max of 240
occurred in 1968, a year in which Canada Geese were supposedly seen only in
the count week; I suspect the number was put in the wrong column. Other
than the 240, the high Snow Goose count in the past was 1, usually about
every 10 years.)
Brant, 62 (68.7, 184)
Canada Goose, 1880 (1165.7, 1700) *** A new record. One of
these was recorded as a Cackling.)
Wood Duck, 41 (22.4, 68) (High this year; all
from Mercer Island)
Green-winged Teal, 67 (56.9, 1,091)
Mallard, 1,544 (1,769.7, 2,991)
Northern Pintail, 52 (26.6, 3,187) (High this year)
Northern Shoveler, 51 (171.7, 853) (Low this year)
Gadwall, 480 (1,387.4, 3,089) (Low this
year)
Eurasian Wigeon, 7 (9.3, 14)
Eurasian x American Wig, 1 (0.6, 1)
American Wigeon, 2,455 (2,328.7, 2,732)
Canvasback,327 (301.6, 558)
Ring-necked Duck, 446 (215.8, 297) **** A new record
Greater Scaup, 364 (306.9, 2,647)
Lesser Scaup, 710 (380.4, 902) (High this year)
Harlequin duck, 59 (37.9, 57) ***** A new record
Long-tailed Duck, 1 (0.3, 8)
Black Scoter, 28 (152.2, 269) (Very low this
year)
Surf Scoter, 333 (560.7, 969) A bit low
White-winger Scoter, 58 (93.8, 390) A bit low
Common Goldeneye, 291 (282.0, 674)
Barrow's Goldeneye, 259 (183.4, 377) A bit high
Bufflehead, 566 (508.4, 667)
Hooded Merganser, 53 (56.3, 108)
Common Merganser, 132 (199.5, 482)
Red-breasted Merganser, 322 (253.1, 395)
Ruddy Duck, 25 (292.2, 1,246) Very low this
year
Bald Eagle, 41 (20.7, 40) **** A new
record
Sharp-shinned Hawk, 15 (17.0, 36)
Cooper's Hawk, 9 (9.5, 17)
Red-tailed Hawk, 39 (30.4, 50)
American Kestrel, 1 (0.6, 6)
Merlin, 13 (6.3, 11) **** A new
record
Peregrine Falcon, 1 (3.3, 7) Low this year,
(perhaps because there was no special effort to stake them out?)
Norther Harrier, 2 (0,.1, 2) Matches the old
record
Ring-necked Pheasant, 2 (6.7, 78) Low this year, perhaps
because of the restoration at the Montlake Fill. Pheasant numbers have
fluctuated in the past, but dropped rapidly in the mid-late 80s
California Quail, 6 (12.6, 144) Low this year;
They show a pattern similar to that of pheasant, with counts commonly
exceding 100 until the late 80s, when they took a steep dive
American Coot, 4,341 (7,695.0, 16,221) Low this year, but
the ten-year average was affected by astoundingly high numbers in the
mid-1990s. Number are normally between 2,000 and 8,000.
Killdeer, 109 (96.9, 312)
Black Turnstone, 15 (43.5,, 153) Low this year
Surfbird, 14 (37.8, 70) Low this year
Sanderling, 200 (59.0, 152) ***** A new record
Dunlin, 257 (105, 284) High this year
Common Snipe, 7 (7.6, 53)
Bonaparte's Gull, 77 (103.3, 1,707)
Mew Gull, 1,201 (967.5, 5,945)
Ring-billed Gull, 471 (451.8, 893)
California Gull, 74 (65.6, 313)
Herring Gull, 6 (11.7, 322)
Thayer's Gull, 4 (6.6, 103)
Western Gull, 9 (6.1, 53)
Western x Gl.-winged, 890 (196.0, 477)
Glaucous-winged Gull, 1,840 (2,282.7, 13,809)
Common Murre, 86 (60.4, 225)
Pigeon Guillemot, 18 (11.7, 38) High this year
Marbled Murrelet, 1 (1.9, 33)
Rhinocerus Auklet, 25 (72.8, 244) Low this year
Rock Dove, 1,440 (1,922, 2,896)
Band-tailed Pigeon, 78 (111.5, 495)
Barn Owl, cw (0.3, 1)
Western Screech-Owl, 9 (7.4, 14)
Great Horned Owl, 3 (2.2, 5)
Barred Owl, 2 (0.9, 2) ** matches the
old record
Northern Saw-whet Owl, 1 (0.8, 3)
Anna's Hummingbird, 47 (23.9, 54) High this year. First
appeared in the CBC in 1965. Stayed in the single digits until 1982, and
hasn't dropped below 11 since then.
Belted Kingfisher, 23 (17.4, 30) High this year
Downy Woodpecker, 47 (54.1, 86)
Hairy Woodpecker, 2 (0.7, 4)
Northern Flicker, R-sh, 170 (116.5, 217) High this year
Norther Flicker, Y-sh, 5 (1.7, 6) High this year
Northern Flicker, Y x R, 1 (0.6, 5)
Pileated Woodpecker, 8 (5.3, 9) High this year (!)
Steller's Jay, 83 (75.6, 181)
Crow, 10,774 (5,153, 9,931) **** A
new record
Black-capped Chickadee, 971 (893.8, 1,282)
Chestnut-backed Chickadee, 88 (165.3, 233) Low this year
Bushtit, 1,203 (992.1, 1,643)
Red-breasted Nuthatch, 60 (965.0, 93)
Brown Creeper, 27 (32.0, 48)
Bewick's Wren, 236 (162.4, 249) High this year
Winter Wren, 194 (132.9, 208) High this
year
Marsh Wren, 11 (14.9, 26)
Golden-crowned Kinglet, 750 (972.8, 1,242)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 421 (270.3, 513) High this year
Townsend's Solitaire, 1 (0.1, 2)
Hermit Thrush, 3 (4.5, 12)
American Robin, 2,485 (2,084, 5,510)
Varied Thrush, 69 (105.1, 321) Low this year
European Starling, 4,824 (3,560, 15,134) A bit high
this year, but no where near the max in 1965. However, I'm skeptical about
whether the max was a typo, since Starling numbers were less than 2,500 for
the five years preceding and after the max.
American Pipit, 1 (7.6, 130) Low this year
Cedar Waxwing, 1 (18.5, 765) Low this year,
but this species fluctuates a lot)
Hutton's Vireo, 5 (4.6, 15)
Orange-crowned Warbler, 3 (1.6, 7)
Yello-rumped Warbler, 8 (13.7, 41) Low this year
Townsend's Warbler, 22 (19.1, 43)
Wilson's Warbler, 1 (0.1, 1) **** Seen only
twice before in 1962 and 1991. Bob Sundstrom found this bird in the
Duwamish area
Spotted Towhee, 194 (193.9, 283)
Fox Sparrow, 129 (102.0, 211)
Song Sparrow, 507 (538.3, 791)
Lincoln's Sparrow, 20 (7.9, 22) High this year
Harris Sparrow, 1 (0.1, 2)
White-crowned Sparrow, 34 (20.0, 45) High this year
Golden-crowned Sparrow, 119 (90.2, 185)
Dark-eyed Junco, 890 (671.1, 1,005) 5 of these were
"Slate-colored"
Red-winged Blackbird, 151 (142.8, 329)
Purple Finch, 3 (7.5, 201) Low this
year. The max is from 1953; numbers were in the double digits until 1991,
have only once been above 8 once since 1990.
House Finch, 1,128 (877.7, 1,338) Have shown a
steady rise since the count began. First got above 1,000 in 1995.
Pine Siskin, 475 (662.0, 5,580) Numbers
have been all over the board since the count began.
American Goldfinch, 126 (207.2, 630) Low this year
House Sparrow, 875 (767.1, 1,436)