Robert Koch writes:

It was a rather interesting day. I was the lone census taker but I don’t mind the solitude. I started at 8 AM with a temperature of 16 degrees but little to no wind except in the open areas by the creek. Even though I was wearing gloves my fingers were very cold and I had difficulty operating my camera. I did manage to get a few shots of Canada Geese that were hunkered down and clustered along the creek banks and patches of ice up and down the creek. There was no open water on the creek.

The woodland trails held very few birds. Finally out on Soggy Bottom Island there were some sparrows (16 White-throats, 2 Song Sparrows and 2 Swamp Sparrows) feeding on the snowy patches. I covered all the trails and saw very little. The only open water was flowing in Powell’s Creek where I flushed 7 Mallards, a Great Blue Heron, and a Kingfisher on my way out of the woods and heading to the meadow.

The place to see birds was the meadow. I walked the perimeter trail checking busy feeders along the way. I finished the woods and meadow at 10 AM and then had lunch and went out again to cover the perimeter trail again. With the temperature up to 22 degrees in the middle of the day, I found House Finches, White-throats and Juncos in abundance. There was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker near the tennis courts but it took off as I was getting my camera ready. I saw 5 Black Vultures sitting in a tree in the area close to the entrance on that vacant piece of land. in that stretch of the path, there were so many White-throats, Juncos and House Finches that they were really not countable. My best estimate is over 100 for each species. I don’t think we have recorded such high numbers before. On the other hand, I noted a number of misses: no Robins, Carolina Chickadees, Grackles or Redwings.

Finally, I went back to the creek just to see if there was any open water. One small patch opened up and was loaded with Mallards and Black Ducks huddled together. I also found 2 Bald Eagles sitting in a tree downstream (had one in the morning so it was probably one of the two I saw in the afternoon) and 5 Ring-billed Gulls. Saw 26 species today. I walked for five hours in all, and it was actually a very nice day to be out.

Participant and reporter: Robert Koch
Editor’s note: Robert photographed the Pileated Woodpecker on Jan. 13, a week before the census, in the Lumberton woods. I couldn’t pass up the chance to share the photograph even though it was not seen on the census!