This was the worst weather I ever encountered on a Christmas Bird Count. I woke up at about 5:30 AM and met our fellow bird counters at 6:30 in Sophie's Diner on Westchester Avenue, near the Pelham Bay subway station. That night I dreamt of beautiful, sunny and breezy weather.
Just before the alarm went off I heard the rain on the windows. It never let up entirely until mid-day. It was misery. In past years I've counted birds at the Turtle Cove area but because there were more people participating this year we were happy to be able to search at Rodman's Neck and an area near the bus stop in Orchard Beach, called the Meadow. This is a large scruffy meadow which usually has lots of birds.
Patty, Con and I drove out and parked. Patty and Con are City Island birders. Our first conversation centered on how crazy we were to be looking for birds on a day such as this. Truly, it was nuts. Only Con was truly dressed properly. He had on rubber rainwear. After an hour or so we were completely drenched, soaked through and through. At Rodman's Neck were some interesting birds. Highlights included a group of Wild Turkeys, some Horned Grebes, various ducks and a bird of prey we had difficulty identifying. In the pouring rain and fog, with wet binocular lenses, we thought it was an immature Red-tailed hawk.
Pat and Con, saner than I, decided it was more important not to get pneumonia than to find a few more birds. They went home to dry out and stayed home, smart move. I went home after Rodman's Neck and changed my clothes. My four layers were wet and my flannel lined jeans were also drenched. This time I put on my waterproof cross-country skiing clothes, all made of Gore-Tex. It's what I should have done from the start.
I returned to Rodman's Neck to see if we had missed any birds. However, a football game was beginning soon and very loud car radios started blaring. This was not good for birding. So I drove over to Orchard Beach and parked. The Meadow was mostly impassable. There were rivers of water flowing across the partially defrosting ground. Water was pooling everywhere and it made the footing difficult. Here I spotted some White Throated Sparrow, a few Goldfinch and hundreds of Canada Geese. My waterproof binoculars and non- waterproof spotting scope miraculously survived the constant pounding rain. Trying to focus through wet lenses and ground fog was not easy but I was determined to find some more birds.
At 1:00 PM all the counters met back at the diner to tally our results. In all, it was an interesting day but I'm not sure I would do it again if the weather were as terrible as it was today. There was a rare bird found, an Eared Grebe, found off Kilroe Street on City Island! Let's hope next year's bird count will have better weather!
The 84th Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count held Sunday, December 23, 2007, found a record 126 species on a very wet miserable day.
The previous count record for species was 125 found in 2001. There were many highlights.
An Eared Grebe found by Steve Walter off City Island was a new species for the count. The count has now seen 223 species in its 84 year history.
Two Eurasian Wigeon were reported - one on Premium Mill Pond, Larchmont and one in Mamaroneck Mill pond.
All three species of scoter were found off Rye along with a Red-necked Grebe and 3 Northern Gannets. It was the first time in 44 years that we recorded all three scoters.
A Great Egret was near Hunter Island in Pelham Bay Park, 6th count record
2 Common Raven over Lenoir Nature Preserve in Yonkers was the 3rd count record; the other sightings were in 1941 and 2006 Three warblers were found; Palm Warbler in Rye, Common Yellowthroat near Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx and a Yellow-breasted Chat near Woodlands High School, Hartsdale.
Chipping Sparrow was in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx White-crowned Sparrows were at Lenoir Nature Preserve and the bridle path in Pelham Bay Park.
Two Lapland Longspurs were found, one in Van Cortlandt Park and the other in Read Sanctuary, Rye, and first records since 1974.
An Indigo Bunting was found in Ward Acres, a park in New Rochelle, 3rd count record.
The bridle path in Pelham Bay Park also hosted a Baltimore Oriole - oddly our 6th record in the last 9 years.
46 Common Redpolls in 4 locations, Rye, Wave Hill, Botanical Gardens and Pelham Bay Park, a 30 year high.
Pine Siskins in the Bronx Zoo and in Rye.
Other species included 2 Red-shouldered Hawks, 3 Merlin, 2 Clapper Rail, 3 Laughing Gulls, 3 Long-eared and a Northern Saw-whet Owl, 3 House Wrens, 2 Eastern Bluebirds, 3 American Pipit.
New record High Counts included 2985 Brant, 75 Wild Turkeys, and 45 Monk Parakeets.
Other highs included;
33 year high of 403 American Wigeon
35 year high of 67 Horned Lark
As expected with this weather many lows were recorded:
44 year low of 4 Northern Shoveler
61 year low of 3 Canvasback
30 year low of 451 Bufflehead
27 year low of 45 Ruddy Duck
24 year low of 2457 Ring-billed Gull
An all time low of 450 Herring Gull, we had a low of 750 in 1996
55 year low of 83 Great-black-backed Gull
39 year low of 6 Belted Kingfisher
29 year low of 136 Downy Woodpecker
39 year low of 304 American Crow
And for the first time in 84 years we missed Ring-necked Pheasant, it was recorded count week though.
