2010 West Campus Christmas Bird Count

American Robin

Once again this year the plan was set to have a Christmas Bird Count modelled after the National Audubon Societies annual bird survey that is now in it's 111th year. This year only two brave birders gathered in the early morning light to search over the 136 acres of West Campus on Wednesday. The snow storm that hit the state on Sunday and Monday left over 15 inches of snow on the ground with drifts up to 30 inches. All the snow limited the off road searches limiting the total time from 7am to 12 noon.

Lourdes by the stream

Lynn and Lourdes were able to pull in a respectable 27 species found throughout the day. A few easy species were missing but a couple of good birds did make an appearance. A few things that we missed but should have found include Tufted Titmouse, Northern Mockingbird, and White-breasted Nuthatch. One of the not looked for species was the Mute Swan, two flew over campus fairly low as we were working along the edge of a parking lot. That's a new species for West Campus, number 105!

The Oyster River

Here's the list with numbers:

Canada Goose-71

Mute Swan- 2
Wild Turkey- 4
Red-tailed Hawk- 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk- 1
Merlin- 1
Ring-billed Gull-11
Herring Gull- 6
Greater Black-backed Gull- 2

Flicker- 2

Red-bellied Woodpecker- 1

Hairy Woodpecker- 1

Downy Woodpecker- 3

Mourning Dove- 13

Rock Pigeon- 15

Hairy Woodpecker

American Crow- 108

Blue Jay- 4

Black-capped Chickadee- 16

European Starling- 75

American Robin- 22
White-throated Sparrow- 40
Song Sparrow- 1
Northern Cardinal- 19

Carolina Wren- 1

House Finch- 1
American Goldfinch- 10

Hermit Thrush- 3



Snowy Walk



The surprise of the day was the three Hermit Thrushes that were popping around by the leaf pile when I stopped on the way out.