Christmas Bird Count Report

National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Well, the Wichita Falls CBC did not happen on the 14th. Due to some team members falling ill to a respiratory illness going around, we delayed the count for a week.

As I stated in my last post, we break our circle into three sections, with a different team for each one, and then consolidate our results with the other teams at the end of the day.

Frank was on my team. We started at the Lake Wichita Spillway a little before 7:30 AM. It was a chilly, but beautiful, morning. I was hoping we would get the rock wrens each of us had seen in the past couple of weeks, but of course, on count day, they were absent. We did see a small flock of American pipits, which was a new bird for Frank. When we got to the chat trail in Lake Wichita Park, we enjoyed a large number of cedar waxwings at the beginning of the trail. They were apparently attracted by the pool of water in the drainage ditch, as they were taking turns bathing.

Frank and I covered our section fairly thoroughly, driving 61.8 miles and walking another 5.4 miles on the day. The other two teams mostly drove. At the count dinner, eating delicious Luigi's pizza and nibbling yummy petit fours, we compiled our lists. Overall, it was not a great day in terms of numbers of species or individuals. The numbers of individuals have been in decline for years. I believe the only bird that we counted over 1,000 individuals was the European starling, and that is not a native to the U.S.

Overall, a fun day, but disappointing in terms of the numbers and types of birds. A consolidated list of birds seen by the three teams included (in order of the Audubon checklist): cackling goose, Canada goose, black-bellied whistling duck, gadwall, mallard, northern shoveler, northern pintail, canvasback, ring-necked duck, bufflehead, ruddy duck, wild turkey, pied-billed grebe, double-crested cormorant, American white pelican, great blue heron, turkey vulture, black vulture, northern harrier, sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper's hawk, bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, American coot, Killdeer, greater yellowlegs, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, great horned owl, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, northern flicker, American kestrel, loggerhead shrike, blue jay, American crow, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, black-crested titmouse, eastern bluebird, American robin, brown thrasher, northern mocking bird, European starling, American pipet, cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, lark sparrow, fox sparrow, dark-eyed junco, white-crowned sparrow, Harris's sparrow, white-throated sparrow, song sparrow, spotted towhee, northern cardinal, red-winged blackbird, meadowlark, Brewer's blackbird, common grackle, great-tailed grackle, house finch, American goldfinch, and house sparrow.

Good birding!