Subject: [Tweeters] DId the Seattle CBC happen?
Date: Jan 6 17:16:26 2011
From: Kevin Purcell - kevinpurcell at pobox.com


On Jan 2, 2011, at 9:39 PM, Jim Flynn wrote:

> Hello out there Seattle area Tweets -
>
> Just curious if anyone saw, or heard of others seeing, anything unusual? *Something* unusual must have been spotted with over 200 eyeballs in the field...

I coordinated 2A (Capitol Hill, Montlake, Madison Park and Portage Bay) section. I'm grateful for Anne, Mary Anne, Barbra, Jill and Mo for getting up early on New Year's Day to bird.

Ad: But six people is not enough. If you're a birder in Capitol Hill, Montlake, Madison Park, Portage Bay or First Hill (the really ignored bit of 2A) the CBC needs you. You can bird your local patch: ask me how!

Nothing unusual (as in TWEETERS-ALERTS unusual) was seen in section 2A but some interesting observations and few memorable moments for those counting the birds.

We saw 2329 individual birds across 55 species of bird (ignoring the unidentified gull spp counted). That compares with 2240 individual birds in 50 species in 2009 without about the same amount of effort. Number below in brackets are the 2010 versus 2009 count.

MISSES

No Canada Geese [0 versus 30]. No Pine Siskin [0 versus 21]. No Red-tailed Hawk [0 versus 1]. No Hairy Woodpeckers [0 versus 1]. No Northern Shrike (count week bird in 2009).

HITS

Common Goldeneye [2 versus 0]. Common Merganser [24 versus 0]. Peregrine Falcon [3 versus 0]. Pileated Woodpecker [1 versus 0]. Red-breasted Sapsucker [2 versus 0]. Hermit Thrush [3 versus 0].

MORE

Lots more Chestnut-backed Chickadee [49 versus 2]. Lots more Steller's Jay [26 versus 3]. Lots Red-breasted Nuthatch [33 versus 11]. Lots more Golden-crowned Kinglets [120 versus 38]. I'm sure we didn't count most of them. More Band-tailed Pigeons [19 versus 6]. More Bushtit [42 versus 26]. More Gadwall [122 versus 83]. No Winter Wrens this year but a lot of Pacific Wrens [13 versus 3] :-)

Saw a Barred Owl in Interlaken rather than hearing a possible Barred Owl in Volunteer.

LESS

Fewer Brown Creeper [1 versus 9]. Fewer Anna's Hummingbird [7 versus 27]. Fewer Bewick's Wren [14 versus 24]. 300 fewer Crows. Fewer Green-winged Teal [8 versus 21].

We started the count with a male and female Peregrine Falcon having an aerial dispute over Volunteer Park and finished the count (the very last species counted at from Sakuma Viewpoint) with a Peregrine flying across Portage Bay to Montlake Community. A very fine symmetry.

I had mentioned the resident Barred Owl pair in Interlaken Park to our team but cautioned they are difficult to find if they don't call. A pair of our birders were asked by a local dog walker if they were "looking for the owl". The dog walker then pointed to a tree where "the owl often sits". There was the Barred Owl at eye level. We even got a photo.

Where are all the Pine Siskins? We had none in the count but we usually see some at VP and the Arboretum. Bizzare. In my daily birding at Volunteer Park I've perhaps seen one small flight of Pine Siskins in the last month.

2A's reliable "oddity" is to go to the SW boundary of 2A at the jetty off Madison on Lake Washington and look out towards the center of the lake just south of SR520. There always seems to be a constant number of Western Grebes bobbing on the lake. Sometimes they look like Buffleheads in binoculars but the Western Grebes are always there during the holidays (in case someone should need a year bird).

Fewer crows streamed across the sky at Montalke Community Center than last year. Later, they appeared but instead of sweeping majestically across the sky in an orderly manner to facilitate counting they came in to land in the trees around the center. I didn't realize there might be a night roost there. That could use some more investigation. Perhaps 300 or 400 American Crow at the roost when we left but accurate counting wasn't easy.

After a record number of Anna's Hummingbirds last year we only saw/heard a couple. Do hummingbirds have bubbles?

Lots of Chesnut-backed Chickadees in the Arboretum: a lot more than I expected. Three Hermit Thrushes along with a good number of Varied Thrushes. Four species of woodpecker including a rather rare (for 2A -- not enough snags) Pileated in Interlaken and an uncommon Red-breasted Sapsucker in Volunteer Park. And 18 Band-tailed Pigeons in the tops of the trees behind the Hebrew Academy.

The oddest thing I saw was a flight of six swans (spp ... not a specific ID) "the wrong side" (in Section 3) of SR520 bridge for our count. They dropped down to the level of the "high rise" and disappeared as I called them out to the rest of the group. I hoped they'ed cross 520. But we looked for them in vain. I suspect they thought I might have lost my mind at that point.

But it was fun. And it will be even more fun next year if you join in.
--
Kevin Purcell (Seattle, WA)
kevinpurcell at pobox.com
http://kevinpurcell.posterous.com
http://twitter.com/kevinpurcell