by Will Cook
The Chapel Hill spring count on Sunday, May 12, 2019, recorded a very low 109 species, our lowest in 45 years! The weather was cloudy, which is normally good for a count, but also very windy all day, which may have kept the birds down and made it more difficult for counters to hear singing birds.
This year's species total of 109 is 11 below the 10-year average of 120. This is the lowest since 1974, before the filling of Jordan Lake, when we also had 109 species. The total number of birds, 6576, is well below the average of 7947. Effort on the count was also quite low, with 97.1 party hours (average 121.5). However, the number of birds per party hour, 67.7, is surprisingly close to the average of 65.7. Perhaps the low count was more related to fewer teams of birders counting, though the wind certainly did not help and prevented boat-accessible areas from being counted.
We found no rare birds on this count, for the first time in many years. Some less common goodies included Great Egret at Sandy Creek Park in Durham (Kent Fiala's team), Sharp-shinned Hawk (Steve Graves's team), Blue-winged Warbler (Jill Froning), Black-throated Green Warbler (Will Cook), Bobolink (Roger Shaw), Baltimore Oriole (Brian Bockhahn), and lingering Pine Siskins (Norm Budnitz's team and Will Cook).
There were no record highs, but we did have "good" numbers of one species: European Starling (232, average 160, highest since 2005).
We had three big misses - Belted Kingfisher (first miss ever in the 63 year history of the count), Blackpoll Warbler (first miss since 2000), and White-throated Sparrow (second miss, first miss was last year). We also set a record low for Wood Thrush, 30 (average is 51), which has been in a steep decline for the past decade. Other lowlights: Hairy Woodpecker (7, average 11, lowest since 1996), Tufted Titmouse (280, average 347, lowest since 1999), Ovenbird (56, average 105, lowest since 1996), Black-and-white Warbler (3, average 20, lowest since 1971), Common Yellowthroat (56, average 100, 2nd lowest since 1969), Northern Parula (68, average 93, lowest since 2000), and Field Sparrow (6, average 12).
Team honors: Brian Bockhahn and Bruce Young both had 79 species in separate areas at Jordan Lake. Roger Shaw, coveing the Dairyland Road area, counted the most individual birds, with 645.
Weather in brief: low 66F, high 75F; wind SW 10-15 mph; cloudy, no rain.
We had 29 field counters in 15 parties (average 39 in 19 parties), with 1 feeder watcher. Thanks to all counters for their efforts, despite the less-than-stellar day!
Detailed Results (PDF format)