Brooklyn Christmas Bird Count

What is the Christmas Bird Count?

DATE: Saturday, 18 December 200
LOCATION: Bergen Beach, Breezy Point, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Brooklyn Heights, Floyd Bennett Field (including Four Sparrow Marsh, Dead Horse Bay), Green-Wood Cemetery, Jacob Riis Park, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Marine Park, Owl's Head Park, Prospect Park, Spring Creek

I've received a number of e-mails inquiring about the results of the Brooklyn leg of the CBC. I wasn't the compiler for the Brooklyn region but I thought that it was important enough to track down the data and post them along with some of the highlights for the borough. I acquired a copy of Rick Cech's totals prior to the compiler, Paul Keim, double-checking for any typos. While I have confidence that Rick entered the data into his spreadsheet correctly, keep in mind that this list is not the "official" official list. Also, in the interest of space, I have just included the final species totals and not the area breakdowns. I'll do my best to recount some of the highlights discussed at the count dinner as it was almost a month ago. Also, I do not have the experience to make a simple comparison with previous counts but I figure this is better than nothing.

The most unusual observations that stick in my mind were of Ash-throated Flycatchers. Everyone assumed that Prospect Park would have the save for the borough but, as it turned out, Joe Giunta also recorded one in Owl's Head Park! I guess it was a good year for ash-throateds here in the east.

I was with the group covering Floyd Bennett Field, Four Sparrow Marsh and Dead Horse Bay. Participants look towards the Floyd Bennett group to find Eastern Meadowlarks for the borough and we didn't disappoint. This year we flushed up a flock of eight. One regularly occurring species at FBF, Ring-necked Pheasant, was curiously absent but a rare sighting of one in Prospect Park was recorded.

I have only been participating for a relatively brief time but recording 6 species of warbler in mid-December seemed unusual to me. Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers were observed in multiple locations while the other four, Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat and Yellow-breasted Chat, were just single individuals.

Two species of owl, barn and short-eared, were recorded with Riis Park getting the Barn Owl save. As expected Steve Walters and his group at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge had the highest species count with 71. Breezy Point came in second with 60 species.

Along the coast 2 Red-necked Grebes were observed, both at Bergen Beach. Under wading birds I believe that a Little Blue Heron at JBWR would be considered a CBC rarity. Twenty-eight waterfowl species were tallied with both White-winged Scoter and Surf Scoter identified with certainly. Eighteen scoter sp. were also added to the list.

Brooklyn's 15 Red-tailed Hawks were matched in number by Northern Harriers along the coast. A single Red-shouldered Hawk was counted at Owl's Head Park and 2 Rough-legged Hawks were observed by the Jamaica Bay group.

Not knowing enough about the historical records below are what seemed to me to be other noteworthy sightings:

- 1 Common Eider: Breezy Point
- 1 Common Merganser: Spring Creek
- 1 Glaucous Gull: Riis Park
- 1 Razorbill: Breezy Point
- 1 Vesper Sparrow: Breezy Point
- 1 Lincoln's Sparrow: Spring Creek
- 1 Rusty Blackbird: Prospect Park
- 4 Pine Siskins: 2, JBWR. 2, Green-Wood Cemetery

In the previous years that I participated at Floyd Bennett Field it seemed like there were Savannah Sparrows all over the place. I don't know if it is significant but this year we only recorded 5.

I kept this report short but I hope it was helpful, I know it was to me. I learned that next year I should go to Breezy Point (just kidding).

A big thank you to all the Brooklyn participants. I've listed their names at the end of this report.

**********

Brooklyn Christmas Count 2004 totals:

Red-throated Loon - 18
Common Loon - 30

Pied-billed Grebe - 11
Horned Grebe - 119
Red-necked Grebe - 2

Northern Gannet - 47

Great Cormorant - 80
Double-crested Cormorant - 134

Great Blue Heron - 17
Great Egret - 1
Little Blue Heron - 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 5
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - 1

Mute Swan - 91
Snow Goose - 308
Brant - 10,086
Canada Goose - 902
Wood Duck - 1
Green-winged Teal - 81
American Black Duck - 535
Mallard - 729
Northern Pintail - 2
Northern Shoveler - 534
Gadwall - 91
Eurasian Wigeon - 1
American Wigeon - 330
Canvasback - 27
Ring-necked Duck - 4
Greater Scaup - 1,059
Lesser Scaup - 26
Common Eider - 1
Long-tailed Duck - 166
Surf Scoter - 4
White-winged Scoter - 3
Scoter (sp.) - 18
Common Goldeneye - 17
Bufflehead - 667
Hooded Merganser - 41
Common Merganser - 1
Red-breasted Merganser - 767
Ruddy Duck - 115

Northern Harrier - 15
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 6
Cooper's Hawk - 9
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 15
Rough-legged Hawk - 2

American Kestrel - 2
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 3

Ring-necked Pheasant - 10

American Coot - 135

Black-bellied Plover - 2
Killdeer - 5

Greater Yellowlegs - 4
Sanderling - 125
Purple Sandpiper - 39
Dunlin - 16
American Woodcock - 4

Bonaparte's Gull - 20
Ring-billed Gull - 2,469
Herring Gull - 1,900
Glaucous Gull - 1
Great Black-backed Gull - 449

Razorbill - 1

Rock Dove - 887
Mourning Dove - 327

Monk Parakeet - 42

Barn Owl - 1
Short-eared Owl - 3

Belted Kingfisher - 5

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 18
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 9
Downy Woodpecker - 73
Hairy Woodpecker - 6
Northern Flicker - 30

Horned Lark - 44

Tree Swallow - 1
Blue Jay - 102

American Crow - 292
Fish Crow - 164

Black-capped Chickadee - 39
Tufted Titmouse - 61

Red-breasted Nuthatch - 42
White-breasted Nuthatch - 64
Brown Creeper - 2

Carolina Wren - 16
Winter Wren - 5
Marsh Wren - 1

Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 16

Hermit Thrush - 7
American Robin - 249

Gray Catbird - 11
Northern Mockingbird - 100
Brown Thrasher - 1

Cedar Waxwing - 78

Ash-throated Flycatcher - 2

European Starling - 2,113

Nashville Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 437
Palm Warbler - 2
Yellow Warbler - 1
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Yellow-breasted Chat - 1

Northern Cardinal - 168

Eastern Towhee - 4
American Tree Sparrow - 140
Chipping Sparrow - 3
Field Sparrow - 10
Vesper Sparrow - 1
Savannah Sparrow - 16
Fox Sparrow - 12
Song Sparrow - 309
Lincoln's Sparrow - 1
Swamp Sparrow - 21
White-throated Sparrow - 438
Dark-eyed Junco - 434
Snow Bunting - 58

Red-winged Blackbird - 31
Eastern Meadowlark - 8
Rusty Blackbird - 1
Boat-tailed Grackle - 6
Common Grackle - 2
Brown-headed Cowbird - 80

Purple Finch - 2
House Finch - 147
Pine Siskin - 4
American Goldfinch - 200

House Sparrows - 339

Number of Species - 129
Total Number - 29,998

**********

105th Annual Christmas Bird Count Brooklyn participants:

Alan Baratz, Monica Berger, Shane Blodgett, Abie Borker, Joe Borker, Jean Bourque, Ronald Bourque, Rick Cech, Jason Conradt, John Criscitiello, Edward Crowne, Dale Dancis, Donald Davis, Peter Dorosh, Dale Dyer, Donna Eis, Mark Eis, Phoebe Eis, Mary Eyster, Joe Giunta, Emily Goldstein, Edith Goren, Bob Gotchfeld, Doug Gotchfeld, Stanley Greenberg, Yelena Greenberg, Dennis Guney, Marge Hanover, Elliotte Harold, Valerie Heldt, Carolyn Huges, Rob Jett, Paul Keim, Jeffrey Kimball, Ann Lazarus, John LePore, Bob Machover, Pat Mazza, Chuck McAlexander, Betsy McCully, Terry Meyers, Karlo Mirth, Fritz Mueller, Stephen Nadler, Steve Nanz, Arleen O’Brien, Patti O’Kane, Suzanne Ortiz, Emily Peyton, Dorothy Poole, Christine Pratt-Scanlon, Kellie Quinones, Richard Rabkin, Don Recklies, Chris Rubin, Veronica Santo, Doug Schoppert, Gil Schrank, Janet Schumaker, Susan Scioli, Mark Shahon, Sean Sime, Heidi Steiner, Paul Sweet, Lenore Swenson, Nancy Tim, Jen Usher, Andrew Vallely, Louise Voccoli, Steve Walter, Marisa Wohl, Mike Zablocky and Janet Zinn