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Blue-throated
Goldentail
(male)

A few spaces are still available for our 2010 midwinter HUMMINGBIRD
EXPEDITION
to warm, sunny Costa Rica
(Week 2 only; Belize trip is full).

Info at
Neotropical Hummingbird Expeditions

Canivet's
Emerald
(male)

In the weeks since fall migration ended we've been hearing reports across the Carolina Piedmont that winter birds were few and far between in late 2009. Indeed, here at Hilton Pond Center we've seen and banded a paucity of winter finches and sparrows, and we're filling our seed feeders at a much slower rate than usual. Thus, we were eager to see how things turned out for our 19th annual York/Rock Hill Christmas Bird Count (CBC), held on 23 December. We figured numbers of birds seen by our stalwart field observers would give us a way to compare this year's numbers with those from previous counts and perhaps reveal whether reports of reduced numbers of winter birds were accurate.

Count founder and compiler Bill Hilton Jr. (present for all 19 of the York/Rock Hill CBCs), Bob Olson (13-year veteran), Faye Metzl (11 years), Steve Patterson (four years), and first-timer Chad Watson assembled at 6:15 a.m. in Rock Hill at the Burger King on S.C. 5 across from Northwestern High School, got coffee, and spread out to their assigned sectors to tally individuals and species of birds within the 15-mile-diameter circle that comprises the count area. (See map above, including the 11 sectors.) The local CBC, normally held the Saturday before Christmas (19 December this year), had to be moved to Wednesday, 23 December because of our unexpected trip to Costa Rica for a mid-month wedding for our in-country guide (see last week's write-up).

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

The count started out mostly clear, with a slight breeze out of the north, and a chilly reading of 24 degrees--although Hilton Pond (above) and other standing water were not frozen. (The pond lies just within the western most edge of Sector 1 of the count circle.) By day's end the skies had clouded up completely and temperatures rose into the low 50s. These conditions were good for observing, but several participants were able to work only through the lunch hour. That said, there were still few birds to be seen and the count ended at dusk with only 62 species and 1,465 individuals on the tally sheet (see Figure 1 below). The latter number was a 19-year low for the York/Rock Hill CBC, breaking the old record low of 1,781 set in 2007. Both these numbers are far below the all-time record high of 12,945 from 1994, when large flocks of Cedar Waxwings and American Robins swelled the numbers. The average number of individual birds over 19 years is 5,320, so the 2009 total is still well below that figure. We did a little better with the number of species observed in 2009, even though 62 was below the 19-year average of 66.3; our record high is 80 species (in 2000), while the lowest tally was in 1997 with 52.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Among our most interesting results in 2009 was a record number of Red-bellied Woodpeckers (female, above) with 35 observed, breaking the old high of 27 set in 2006. Also worth noting were the two Bald Eagles (photo below) spotted by Faye Metzl on the Catawba River. This year was only the fifth time we've seen these fish-eating raptors; we also saw two in 2002. Perhaps the best look at a bird of prey during the CBC was an adult Red-shouldered Hawk (top photo) checking out birds around the feeders at Hilton Pond Center.

Considering our previous highs of more than 200 for both Black and Turkey Vultures, it was amazing our tallies for both these species were in single figures. Conspicuously absent from the count were most waterfowl, accipiters, owls, Wild Turkeys, Brown Thrashers, and Brown-headed Cowbirds, and the totals for nearly all sparrows were abysmally low--which seems to bear out those anecdotal reports that birds were few and far between so far this winter at Hilton Pond Center and elsewhere in the Carolina Piedmont.

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Despite our record-low overall total of individual birds tallied, in 2009 we equalled or exceeded the 19-year average for 23 species (shown on Table 1 below in RUST), plus species in GREEN that tied a record high (one this year) or in RED that set a new record high (one this year).

All text, maps, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Comments or questions about this week's installment?
Please send an E-mail message to INFO.

Be sure to scroll down for an account of all
birds banded or recaptured during the period,
plus other nature notes of interest.

Thanks to the following fine folks for recent gifts in support of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History and/or Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project. Your tax-deductible contributions allow us to continue writing, photographing, and sharing "This Week at Hilton Pond." (Please see Support if you'd like to make a gift of your own. You can also contribute by ordering an Operation RubyThroat T-shirt.)

• Ramona & Jim Edman (Oh-Sixers alumni from Costa Rica 2006 hummingbird expedition; Supporting Contributors)
• Laura Hartley (via PayPal)
• Margaret Zircher (via PayPal)