Sullivan County Audubon Society has participated in National
Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count every year since 1950!
We have not missed a single count in over 50 years!
The data for all of the Christmas Counts conducted all
over North America are now available online through the National
Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Our local count is called the “Monticello, NY”
count. If you want to see the information we have contributed
over the years, including the kinds of birds and the numbers
found, or if you'd like to learn more about the Christmas
Bird Count, check out National Audubon's CBC
website.
2008
Summary and data compiled by Dan
Niven, Senior Scientist, National Audubon Society
Sullivan County Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count
was held on December 27th, 2008. This was National
Audubon’s 109th count, and it was the 59th year Sullivan
County Audubon has participated. Each year participants
divide into groups (or parties) to count all birds within
pre-designated regions in a 15-mile diameter count circle
centered along the Neversink River south of Bridgeville. The
circle includes Monticello, the Bahsakill wetland, parts
of the Rio & Mongauk Reservoirs as well as Kiameshia
Lake. A small portion of Orange County is included
near Cuddebackville.
As was the case last year the weather was not optimal,
with some light rain off and on throughout the morning and
ice-crusted snow that limited access to some areas. In
spite of the conditions we recorded 61 species, which was
a new record for our count! This year we had the participants
split into one more group than we’ve ever had in the
past (8) and it seems to have paid off.
Among the highlights were two species found by Valerie
Freer’s team: Palm Warbler and Savannah Sparrow. Neither
of these had previously been seen on our count. But
considering their winter ranges they are not totally unexpected,
especially in light of the patterns of distributional change
we are detecting among other similar species. Both of these
species are short-distance migrants that normally overwinter
not too far to the south, and in a recent analysis of 40-years
of Christmas Bird Counts we found that two thirds of over
300 species included in our analysis were shifting their
winter ranges significantly to the north. Based on
consideration of climate data it appears that warming winter
temperatures is at least partially responsible for some
of the range shifts. The northern expansion of many
species such as Red-billed Woodpecker and Carolina Wren
have been well known to us, but it appears the phenomena
is more widespread. We can expect to find more species
from the south on our CBCs in the future.
Thanks again to Ruth Shursky for hosting the post-count
potluck and countdown.
Christmas Count
Participants:
Group 1: Kathy Scullion & Bill
Cutler
Group 2: Arlene Borko, Phyllis Jones & Dick
Hirshman
Group 3: John Haas & Lance Verderame
Group 4: Ruth Shursky & Ruth McKeon
Group 5: Renee Davis, Marge Gorton,
Brian Bury & Laura Kunzman
Group 6: Barb Schmitt, Ken Schmitt, Aaron Schmitt & Rachel
Schmitt
Group 7: Valerie Freer, Mary Collier & Patrick Dechon
Group 8: Dan Niven, Scott Baldinger, Greg Faller & Dave
Smith
Feeder: Deanna Mendels
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