BREVARD NC CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT 2007

Snow Goose (Blue form) cw

Ross' Goose cw

Pied-billed Grebe 7

Horned Grebe  cw

Great Blue Heron  8

Canada Goose  45

Wood Duck  cw

Mallard  60

Ring-necked Duck  95

Lesser Scaup 1

Bufflehead  10

Hooded Merganser  6

Ruddy Duck  cw

Black Vulture 7

Turkey Vulture  27

Northern Harier  4

Sharp-shinned Hawk  cw

Cooper’s Hawk  1

Red-shouldered Hawk  5

Red-tailed Hawk  5

American Kestrel 5

Merlin  1

Wild Turkey  79

American Coot  22

Killdeer  5

Rock Pigeon  3

Mourning Dove 118

Great Horned Owl  cw

Rufous Hummingbird 1

Belted Kingfisher 8

Red-bellied Woodpecker  8

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  3

Downy Woodpecker  17

Hairy Woodpecker   5

Northern Flicker   11

Pileated Woodpecker  3

Eastern Phoebe  9

Blue Jay  48

American Crow   665

Common Raven cw

Carolina Chickadee  88

Tufted Titmouse   72

Red-breasted Nuthatch  2

White-breasted Nuthatch   20

Brown Creeper   3

Carolina Wren    58

Winter Wren   2

Golden-crowned Kinglet   20

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   7

Eastern Bluebird   52

Hermit Thrush  1

American Robin  37

Northern Mockingbird   13

Brown Thrasher 1

American Pipit  cw

Cedar Waxwing   65

European Starling   230

Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler 1

Pine Warbler 1

Northern Cardinal   92

Eastern Towhee  40

Chipping Sparrow  10

Field Sparrow   10

Savannah Sparrow  3

Fox Sparrow   cw

Song Sparrow   164

Swamp Sparrow   1

White-throated Sparrow  54

White-crowned Sparrow  2

Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco 105

Eastern Meadowlark   15

Common Grackle 50

Purple Finch  11

House Finch   16

American Goldfinch   146

Date: Friday December 28, 2007

7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

22 Field Participants in 10 parties

47  Party-hours (7 on foot, 40 by car)

273 Party-miles (4 on foot, 269 by car)

7 People at Feeders, 23 Total Feeder-hours

67 species seen on Count Day; 10 additional during Count Week

Weather:  44 - 50 degrees F.

Wind – None

Snow – None

Still water – Open

Moving Water – Open

AM Cloud Cover – Heavy

PM Cloud Cover – Heavy

Am Rain – Heavy with short breaks

AM Snow – None

PM Rain – Heavy with short breaks

PM Snow – None

Compiler’s Comments. With heavy rain falling most of the day from 9 o’clock on, this was perhaps the most difficult Christmas count ever held in Brevard. Three scheduled parties did not go out at all. Yet 22 intrepid souls braved the elements and persevered, taking advantage of 10-minute breaks in the downpour to walk and bird outside their cars and building, by day’s end, a respectable list of 67 species. Ten more were added during the Count Week period, a reminder of what might have been if the weather had not been such a problem.

One bright spot in this otherwise dreary day was the Merlin sighted by Wayne Forsythe and Ron Selvey at the Wilson Road sod farm, only the third Merlin ever recorded on this count. Another was the continued appearance, at a feeder in Brevard, of an adult male Rufous hummingbird, a bird that has been coming regularly there since August. (When it was trapped in September by bander Dwayne Martin, it proved to be the same bird he had banded as an immature a year earlier and a few blocks away.)

Northern birds have begun to appear here this winter and we were pleased to see that Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, and Red-breasted Nuthatches all were recorded in several locations on count day. Wilson’s Snipe was absent, however, as was Eurasian Collared-Dove; the latter seems to have disappeared entirely from its former haunts in Brevard.

The two Ross’s Geese and the blue-morph Snow Goose which have been sighted irregularly since November were not seen on count day but had been noted a day before the count, so are included as Count Week birds. The same is true of the Horned Grebe, locally uncommon, which was seen Dec. 27 at a local settlement pond but not found there (due to impossible visibility) on count day. Norma Siebenheller

Field Participants:

Feeder Watchers: