Hello, Tweeters,

We were blessed with amazingly cooperative weather and very cooperative birds for the Sequim-Dungeness Christmas Count on Monday, Dec 14, the 40th year of this CBC. I?m just beginning to enter data so complete results are a long way off, but here are the preliminary tallies.

Our species total currently stands at 152 species, which beats our former record (and WA record) of 151 species set in 2011. I have yet to hear from 4 groups, so we?re hoping the total may even go higher. If our count did so well, other northwest CBCs should also be prepared for the possibility of high species counts and lots of birds, if the weather cooperates.

Some interesting species for our count:
Northern Fulmar - 2 recorded by the boat party
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel - 17 recorded by the boat party
Leach?s Storm-Petrel - 16 recorded by the boat party and 2 recorded at Dungeness Spit
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 2 ? 5th year in a row we have had BCNH on our count, likely the same birds, roosting in trees in Dungeness
Sora - One bird recorded in a wetlands west of the Dungeness River
Long-billed Dowitcher - 3 at 3 Crabs
Sandpiper sp., not Dunlin, likely Westerns - 2 at Dungeness Bay
Marbled Godwit - 33 at 3 Crabs.
Willet - 1 at 3 Crabs, where one or two have been since summer
House Wren - 1 at Graysmarsh
Western Bluebird - 1 at Miller Peninsula
Wilson?s Warbler - 1 bright male photographed in the northern area of the circle
Lapland Longspur - 1 on the beach at Protection Island
White-throated Sparrow - several, including 5 at Graysmarsh with hundreds of other sparrows
Harris?s Sparrow - 1 immature photographed on the west side of the circle
Pine Grosbeak - 2 recorded near the top of Burnt Hill in the Olympic foothills
Common Redpoll - 1 recorded and described well at Gaskell Slough

Some likely species we missed are Ring-necked Pheasant (which aren?t released for hunting in Dungeness anymore), Band-tailed Pigeon, American Pipit, and Horned Lark. One or more of these could be added by a missing group.

Many thanks to all our great counters. We had superb coverage this year by a wonderful group of excellent birders.

Bob Boekelheide
Dungeness