5th annual YWC Christmas Bird Count

A voice from the past returning briefly to the Birding West Campus blog...

Lynn and Sue watching a distant Northern Flicker

With the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count scheduled for Saturday December 14th, the West Campus birders (Lynn, Tom and yours truly - Sue) chose a date within the count week (Dec. 11-17) for our fifth West Campus Christmas Bird Count.  We met at 7:15 Friday morning, December 13th, on a bright and cold day to take our annual census of the avian population at West Campus.

female Eastern Towhee, digiscoped by T. Parlapiano

Since our first count in 2009, there have been changes to the physical landscape of the 136-acre property (see Lynn's previous post). Will the clear-cutting of one of the most bird-friendly habitats on campus usher in changes in species diversity? in numbers of birds? It takes a dedicated group of birders to gather the data necessary to answer these questions.  Sure, we're out there birding because we love to do it, but also because we know WHY we're doing it.

As you've read in this blog every December since 2009, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count is the oldest citizen science survey in the nation - and now spreading around the world.  The data collected from this count informs environmental policy decision-making from the lowest to the highest levels of government.  So, Sue and Lynn and Tom, in this little patch of Connecticut, were out gathering data to add to the big picture of bird diversity in North America but also to inform the administration of Yale's West Campus.

Female Eastern Towhee eating sunflower seeds in the yard outside of the
Yale West Campus Education Center - on count day!

On to the statistics for the day and our bird list:
Friday December 13, 2013; 7:15am-12:15pm, 24F/-4C, high cloud cover, clearing by noon, moving water was open, still water was frozen. 3 participants, 5 daylight hours each.

1. Canada Goose ...................100
2. Turkey Vulture .................... 1
3. Red-tailed Hawk ................ 2
4. Herring Gull ........................ 8
5. Ring-billed Gull ...................13
6. Downy Woodpecker .......... 5
7. Red-bellied Woodpecker .... 2
8. Northern Flicker ................ 1
9. Rock Pigeon .......................27
10. Mourning Dove ................ 10
11. Cedar Waxwing ................ 8
12. American Crow ................15
13. Fish Crow ........................ ?
14. Blue Jay ........................... 7
15. European Starling ............. 83
16. American Robin .. ............ 30
17. Hermit Thrush ....................2
18. Northern Mockingbird ...... 1
19. Carolina Wren .................. 5
20. Black-capped Chickadee .. 4
21. Tufted Titmouse ...............  7
22. White-breasted Nuthatch... 4
23. Brown Creeper ...............  2
24. Northern Cardinal ........... 12
25. Dark-eyed Junco ............ 12
26. White-throated Sparrow .. 42
27. Song Sparrow ................. 1
28. Eastern Towhee ............... 1
29. American Goldfinch ......... 9
30. House Finch .................... 1
31. House Sparrow ............... 15

Past Christmas Count blog posts:
2009
2010
2011
2012