WINTER BIRDING CAN BE IS TOPS!
FOSL members Jay, Charlene, Ken, Debbie, Caroline and Damien were joined by Claire and park folk Tom Olsen and Rob Comstock for the annual SLSP Winter Bird Census. The eleventh year in a row the park has been c
ounted in winter.The group split into four crews in the morning with one team taking a canoe onto the lake. As the crews spread out over the park's 2,700 acres they did so under uncertain skies and horrible weather forecast. However, the day's weather turned out BEAUTIFUL!
It was a joy running around the park chasing birds. The crews joined up to wrap up the day scanning the lake from the north pier (a.k.a. birding pier). Ken refused to give up and finally spotted the last bird of the day, a Vermilion flycatcher, about 3:30 PM.
At the end of the day, 89 bird species were tallied and just under 5,300 individual birds. Eighty-nine species is a great day of winter birding anywhere on the UTC.
- NICE SURPRISES -Birds of the day included Vermilion flycatcher, Winter wren, Eurasian collared dove and Harris's sparrow. The last two are new to the park checklist.
- LOPSIDED NUMBERS - Once again Am. Coot and Snow goose made-up a huge part of the 5,300 birds counted with over 2,000 and 1,000 counted respectively.
- Goodly numbers of 11 duck species were on the lake including nice rafts of Canvasback and Redheads.
- PRAIRIE = SPARROW HOUND HEAVEN -It was an 11 "sparrow species"-day with the prairie yielding eight including two Field sparrows which haven't been seen for a few years. The prairie had plenty of sparrows (LeConte's, Savannah, Swamp) popping in front of a crew stomping the tall grasses.
- BLAME GLOBAL WARMING? - Other than the geese, coots and ducks just about every other species' totals were below average.
OH, WHAT COULDA BEEN...
- The 89-species total is five below the park's 11 year winter count average!
- NOtable misses:
- NO gulls or terns;
- NO Tree swallow;
- NO shorebirds except Kildeer and Wilson's snipe;
- NO Green-winged teal;
- NO Eastern bluebird, Common yellowthroat, European starling and a few other gimme passerines.
BOTSLSPAWBC
Tough competition for "Birder of the SLSP Annual Winter Bird Census:"- Winter wren put Ken in the running at lunch;
- Charlene and Caroline, the two brave women canoeing the lake, had to be considered;
- A handsome man who found two new birds for the park checklist (Harris's sparrow & Eurasian collared dove) in the afternoon made the final cut.
