Bird count for Christmas

Photo by Roger Reynolds

Everyone who made it out to Glen Helen yesterday for our (first annual) Christmas Bird Count was treated to a beautiful winter day. There was about an inch and a half of snow on the ground when we started, and it snowed on us until about eleven.

We divided the Glen into 9 zones, and sent a team out to each of those. We covered most, but not all of the 25 miles of trails in the Glen, and hit pretty much every type of habitat in the preserve. The area around the pine forest held a number of species not widely found elsewhere, including red-breasted nuthatch, hermit thrush, and golden-crowned kinglet.

We were low on hawks/vultures -- not surprising given the weather. We didn't turn up any owls either. Reasonable to expect that there were three (possibly four) species present, but we missed 'em.

We found 1,545 birds of 33 species, including the following:
Canada goose: 1
Mallard: 4
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Red-tailed hawk: 2
Mourning Dove: 29
Belted kingfisher: 4
Red-bellied woodpecker: 36
Downy woodpecker: 24
Hairy woodpecker: 6
Northern flicker: 6
Pileated woodpecker: 8
Blue jay: 8
Americal crow: 45
Carolina chickadee: 108
Tufted titmouse: 48
Red-breasted nuthatch: 3
White-breasted nuthatch: 34
Brown creeper: 10
Carolina wren: 13
Winter wren: 4
Golden-crowned kinglet: 4
Hermit thrush: 4
American robin: 163
European starling: 752
Eastern towhee: 10
American tree sparrow: 12
Song sparrow: 4
White-throated sparrow: 94
White-crowned sparrow: 2
Dark-eyed junco: 32
Northern cardinal: 69
House finch: 1
American goldfinch: 6

Big thanks to everyone who came out to help.

-Nick Boutis (in an email to the Friends of the Glen)