The Christmas Bird Count is complete. Thanks to all who helped this year!
This year’s results were 91 species and 5,264 individual birds in our Spring Creek count circle. We beat our average of 90 species over the last ten years!
A new group of volunteers helped this year…the “West Fork Kayakers!” David Henderson led a small group of students on a kayak trip from State Hwy 242 to the Grand Parkway 99 on the west fork of the San Jacinto river.
Below are all the details on the species seen & how many individuals were counted on December 16.
Bird Species # of Birds counted
Black-bellied Whistling-duck 296
Egyptian Goose (Domestic type) 6
Wood Duck 8
Gadwall 3
American Wigeon 60
Mallard 41
Mottled Duck 6
Northern Shoveler 12
Ring-necked Duck 15
Lesser Scaup 83
Ruddy Duck 2
Pied-billed Grebe 22
Neotropic Cormorant 81
Double-crested Cormorant 579
Anhinga 4
Am. White Pelican 29
Great Blue Heron 35
Great Egret 68
Snowy Egret 7
White Ibis 50
Black Vulture 51
Turkey Vulture 8
Osprey 5
Cooper’s Hawk 2
Bald Eagle 4
Red-shouldered Hawk 6
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Crested Caracara 2
American Kestrel 3
Killdeer 43
Spotted Sandpiper 9
Least Sandpiper 10
Wilson’s Snipe 4
Ring-Billed Gull 104
Rock Pigeon 25
White-winged Dove 35
Mourning Dove 38
Eastern Screech-owl 7
Great Horned Owl 4
Barred Owl 2
Rufous Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 9
Red-bellied Woodpecker 82
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 3
Downy Woodpecker 31
Red-Cockaded Woodpecker 5
Pileated Woodpecker 10
Eastern Phoebe 40
Loggerhead Shrike 2
White-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 91
American Crow 69
Carolina Chickadee 74
Tufted Titmouse 15
Brown-headed Nuthatch 12
Brown Creeper 3
House Wren 15
Winter Wren 4
Sedge Wren 5
Carolina Wren 51
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 15
Golden-crowned Kinglet 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 101
Eastern Bluebird 93
Hermit Thrush 2
American Robin 629
Gray Catbird 3
Brown Thrasher 2
Northern Mockingbird 28
European Starling 191
American Pipit 15
Cedar Waxwing 597
Orange-crowned Warbler 43
Pine Warbler 55
Yellow-rumped Warbler 215
Chipping Sparrow 194
Field Sparrow 6
Harris’s Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 13
Vesper Sparrow 2
Savannah Sparrow 8
Song Sparrow 4
Lincoln’s Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 9
Northern Cardinal 125
Red-winged Blackbird 23
Great-tailed Grackle 105
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
Purple Finch 6
American Goldfinch 453
House Sparrow 23
Number of Bird Individuals Seen 5264
Species Count 91
Each year, there are always misses that we have which could have brought up the count. For this year, here are some that were surprising:
- Roseate Spoonbill
- Sharp-shined Hawk
- American Coot
- Yellowlegs (both)
- Eurasian Collared-Dove
- Red-Headed Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Tree Swallow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Eastern Meadowlark
- House Finch
It’s also interesting to see some of the unique sightings — where only ONE of our teams saw a species:
- Only seen by Hooks team:
- Gadwall
- Crested Caracara
- Harris’s Sparrow
- Only seen by Lake Woodlands & Montgomery County Preserve team:
- Ruddy Duck
- Neotropic Cormorant
- Vesper Sparrow
- Only seen by one of our Lakeside Park (Woodlands) teams:
- American Wigeon
- Northern Shoveler
- Ring-necked Duck
- White Ibis
- Only seen by Mercer team:
- Eastern Screech owl
- Barred Owl (another group saw Great Horned Owl)
- Only seen by ExxonMobil teams:
- Field Sparrow
- Lincoln’s Sparrow
- Only seen by West Fork Kayakers:
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Least Sandpiper
- Only seen on Creek Trail behind Lost Pine Circle:
- Rock Pigeon (they went looking for (and found) Winter Wrens, but it was also seen by another team)
- Only seen by Jones State Forest team:
- Red-cockaded Woodpecker
- White-eyed Vireo
- Brown Thrasher
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Only seen by feeder watcher Kathy Merritt:
- Rufous Hummingbird
- Purple Finch
Thanks again goes out to everyone that helped! Make sure & save the date for next year: Saturday, Dec 15th, 2018.
Submitted by Claire Moore