Hi Tweets,

Well the Moses Lake CBC is history. The continuing cold weather definitely
put a damper on the numbers of birds. Eleven courageous counters put
together a respectable tally of 81 species, including three new to the
count. In addition there were 4 birds for the Count Week (at this writing at
least), including a new bird as well
A well described BULLOCK'S ORIOLE male was by far the best bird of the
count. EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE was well represented with 11 in one tree!
Photos were obtained an will be submitted to WBRC. A single THAYER'S GULL
rounded out the new birds observed during the count.
A gray-morph GYRFALCON was seen at very close range eliciting some ooohs
and aaahs form the observers. MERLIN was well represented with 3
individuals. A BURROWING OWL was a nice treat for two observers. This is a
difficult bird in winter. Also nice were 13 DUNLIN and 6 LEAST SANDPIPER as
these two species continue to winter-over in the basin.
As I noted, numbers were way down for a variety of species, particularly
waterbirds. The total tally of both ducks, geese, and swans did not equal
last years Mallard count. Species normally counted in the thousands were
counted in the low one-hundreds. Many duck species were represented by
counts of fewer than twenty. Only thirteen gulls were tallied during the
entire count.
The montane irruption of last year is over with almost no species
represented this year. Even Red-breasted Nuthatch was missed entirely. The
only exceptions were a higher than normal number of Varied Thrush and a
single Brown Creeper.
Even though the numbers were down and the weather very cold, we had a great
count and the chili feed at the end was awesome.

Cheers and Good Birding over the Holidays
Doug Schonewald
Moses Lake, WA
dschone8 at donobi.net

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