Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Mitchell SD 2017 Christmas Bird Count Results

About the Audubon CBC

For over 100 years, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) uses volunteers to track bird populations by holding local counts across North and South America. The Mitchell Count, one of about 2,500, involved volunteers of all birding levels to count birds in the field and at their feeders.

About the Mitchell CBC

The Mitchell CBC was reinitiated in 2013 after a 46 year hiatus. This was our fifth consecutive year to hold the count.  The count occurred on December 26 with 17 field observers and 4 feeder watchers.  All birds were counted within the count circle. The circle is centered in Mitchell and is 15 miles in diameter.

The Audubon map of the count circle can be found at https://arcg.is/0mDr0W.


Count Summary

After unseasonably mild temperatures, the days preceding the count had below zero temperatures that froze all water. On the day of the count we had clear skies and little wind. Day time temperatures started at -13 F and only rose to 2 F.  There was 4 inches of snow on the ground. There was no open water. A total of 23 people participated. We had 7 groups of people who birded in the field but only 4 groups that watched their feeders.  Some of our regular participants were out of town for the holidays.

We had a total of 5,552 birds counted composed of 44 species and 3 subspecies for the count. There were 2 count week species. The most abundantly seen bird was the red-winged blackbird.

One new species was added to the count, a white-winged crossbill.  It was seen at a feeder, proving the fact that feeder watchers are vital to a successful count.

We had high counts for rock pigeons, house finch, and common redpolls as well as Oregon dark-eyed junco.

Our best birds were the greater prairie-chicken, yellow-rumped warbler, and of course white-winged crossbill.

Some species that are normally seen but missed include mallard, mourning dove, brown creeper, golden-crowned kinglet, snow bunting, western meadowlark, and common grackle.

I’ve composed two tables.  One has counts for this year and the other displays data from all count years.

Count Details

The following table contains counts for the year and is ordered by most abundant to least abundant species.  It’s always interesting and depressing that some of the most abundant birds are introduced species.
Red-winged Blackbird
1230
House Sparrow
809
European Starling
689
Rock Pigeon
631
American Tree Sparrow
413
Horned Lark
368
Ring-necked Pheasant
221
Dark-eyed Junco
172
Cedar Waxwing
157
American Goldfinch
132
House Finch
128
American Robin
118
Common Redpoll
97
Lapland Longspur
50
Eurasian Collared Dove
37
Blue Jay
37
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
36
Wild Turkey
30
Pine Siskin
24
Red-tailed Hawk
21
Northern Cardinal
21
Downy Woodpecker
18
Black-capped Chickadee
15
Rough-legged Hawk
11
Hairy Woodpecker
11
American Crow
10
Bald Eagle
8
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)
8
Great Horned Owl
7
Northern Flicker
6
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
6
White-breasted Nuthatch
6
Red-bellied Woodpecker
5
Greater Prairie Chicken
3
American Kestrel
3
Sharp-shinned Hawk
2
Cooper's Hawk
2
Eastern Screech Owl
2
buteo sp.
1
Merlin
1
Northern Shrike
1
Red-breasted Nuthatch
1
Yellow-rumped Warbler
1
Song Sparrow
1
Harris's Sparrow
1
White-winged Crossbill
1

Count Details by Year

I think it’s interesting to compare this year to previous years. Zero denotes count week species.

Species
1957
1966
1967
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Snow Goose





0

0
Canada Goose



0
50
0
24
0
Wood Duck





1


Mallard
802

43

225
2


Northern Pintail
6







Lesser Scaup





3


Common Merganser
1







Ring-necked Pheasant
26
37
3
194
137
366
141
221
Greater Prairie Chicken



10



3
Wild Turkey



104
294
88
162
30
Northern Harrier
1


1


1

Sharp-shinned Hawk



5
2
3
2
2
Cooper's Hawk



2
1
3
2
2
Northern Goshawk



3

1


Bald Eagle



8
3
6
6
8
Red-tailed Hawk



15
24
19
28
21
Red-tailed Hawk (Harlan's)






1

Rough-legged Hawk


1
16
3
2
20
11
buteo sp.







1
Rock Pigeon



112
495
435
131
631
Eurasian Collared Dove



68
95
54
179
37
Mourning Dove



9
1
0
2

Eastern Screech Owl



4
1

1
2
Great Horned Owl
2

3
4
10
2
5
7
Snowy Owl




1



Long-eared Owl




1



Short-eared Owl

1






Belted Kingfisher




1
0


Red-bellied Woodpecker



5
9
9
8
5
Downy Woodpecker
6
11
2
19
30
32
27
18
Hairy Woodpecker
1


5
17
16
13
11
Northern Flicker



21
8
20
27
6
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
6

1




6
American Kestrel



3
1
2
6
3
Merlin



2


2
1
Prairie Falcon





1


Northern Shrike

2

8
3
2
1
1
Blue Jay
12

1
59
37
46
73
37
American Crow
21
12
90
12
54
57
15
10
Common Raven




1



Horned Lark
30
27
100
43
255
444
4
368
Black-capped Chickadee
7
11
6
32
39
34
24
15
Tufted Titmouse





0


Red-breasted Nuthatch
4


3
3
3
12
1
White-breasted Nuthatch
2

1
10
17
20
20
6
Brown Creeper
4
1

8
7
1


Golden-crowned Kinglet
5
1

2
1
1
4

Eastern Bluebird





4
5

Townsend's Solitaire






1

American Robin
1
14

1746
39
561
261
118
European Starling
14
48
130
1339
286
445
6559
689
Cedar Waxwing



174
52
153
70
157
Lapland Longspur

1
1200
46
133
32
30
50
Snow Bunting



5
1
55


Yellow-rumped Warbler



3

0

1
American Tree Sparrow
106
230
220
67
52
141
456
413
Song Sparrow



2
3

1
1
Harris's Sparrow

4
14


5
1
1
White-crowned Sparrow




2



Dark-eyed Junco



278
96
136
83
172
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
62
17
43




36
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)

1
4




8
Northern Cardinal
2
1
4
14
29
26
27
21
Red-winged Blackbird



5720
597
410
1212
1230
Western Meadowlark



4

3
6

Rusty Blackbird





1


Common Grackle


13
3
1
2


Brown-headed Cowbird



1




House Finch

1

61
33
108
49
128
Purple Finch





7
1

White-winged Crossbill







1
Common Redpoll
14



45
7

97
Pine Siskin
42
11

0
16
22

24
American Goldfinch

7
6
29
57
197
292
132
House Sparrow
200
25
1000
360
292
749
687
809

1377
463
2885
10639
3560
4737
10682
5552

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