Greetings All:
On 15 December 2018, thirteen bold birders (Kathryn Brautigam, Canyon
Clark, Jeremy Clark, Anthony Hewetson, Ellen Hildebrandt, Barry Keith,
Peter Keyel, Phillip Kite, Rob Lee, Liam McGuire, Bobby Schat, William
Wenthe, Lena Zappia) braved the not-really-that-bad conditions of the
Lubbock County CBC. All in all we racked up 124 species of birds (at
the low end of average for the count) with numbers as would be
expected following a year of moderate drought with oddly timed rains,
poor seed and fruit crops, and low recruitment of prey species.
The list: numbers, species (abbreviated commentary where called for):
9 Snow Geese (low numbers)
11 Ross's Geese (low numbers)
10 Greater White-fronted Geese (low numbers)
14631 'white-cheeked' geese
7599 Cackling Geese
14532 Canada Geese
20 Wood Ducks
449 Northern Shovelers
289 Gadwalls
175 American Wigeons
1182 Mallards
16 Northern Pintails (low numbers)
92 Green-winged Teals
5 Canvasbacks (low numbers)
6 Redheads (low)
25 Ring-necked Ducks (low numbers)
12 Lesser Scaups (low numbers)
14 Buffleheads (low numbers)
5 Common Goldeneyes (inexplicably high numbers)
45 Hooded Mergansers
1 Red-breasted Merganser (unusual species)
394 Ruddy Ducks
31 Northern Bobwhites
8 Scaled Quails (high numbers)
2 Ring-necked Pheasants
22 Wild Turkeys (low numbers)
96 Pied-billed Grebes
2 Eared Grebes
1917 Rock Pigeons
2549 Eurasian Collared Doves
5 Inca Doves
604 White-winged Doves
631 Mourning Doves
3 Greater Roadrunners
1 Sora
359 American Coots
984 Sandhill Cranes (high numbers)
39 Killdeers
3 Wilson's Snipes
7 Lesser Yellowlegs (high numbers)
8 Greater Yellowlegs
745 Ring-billed Gulls
1 Herring Gull
115 Double-crested Cormorants
American Bittern (count week)
31 Great Blue Herons
13 Black-crowned Night Herons
1 Osprey (unusual species)
1 Bald Eagle (unusual species)
24 Northern Harriers
12 Sharp-shinned Hawks
9 Cooper's Hawks
2 Red-shouldered Hawks (unusual species and high numbers)
57 Red-tailed Hawks
3 Rough-legged Hawks
18 Ferruginous Hawks
6 Barn Owls
11 Eastern Screech Owls
16 Burrowing Owls
12 Belted Kingfishers
3 Golden-fronted Woodpeckers
3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers
11 Ladder-backed Woodpeckers
37 Northern Flickers
33 American Kestrels
2 Merlins
3 Peregrine Falcons (high numbers)
3 Prairie Falcons
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 Say's Phoebe (unusual species)
1 Loggerhead Shrike
137 Blue Jays (high numbers)
2 American Crows
2 Chihuahuan Ravens
98 Horned Larks
8 Black-crested Titmice
2 Verdins (unusual species)
4 Red-breasted Nuthatches
2 Brown Creepers
2 House Wrens
2 Winter Wrens
14 Marsh Wrens
1 Carolina Wren
8 Bewick's Wrens
46 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
2 Eastern Bluebirds
12 Western Bluebirds (high numbers)
4 Hermit Thrushes
328 American Robins
1 Gray Catbird (unusual species)
14 Curve-billed Thrashers
1 Brown Thrasher
35 Northern Mockingbirds
1731 European Starlings
36 Cedar Waxwings
400 House Sparrows
11 American Pipits
249 House Finches
5 Pine Siskins
2 Lesser Goldfinches
44 American Goldfinches
18 unidentified longspurs
23 McCown's Longspurs
14 Spotted Towhees
2 Rufous-crowned Sparrows
1 Field Sparrow
9 Vesper Sparrows
14 Lark Buntings
44 Savannah Sparrows
53 Song Sparrows (low numbers)
25 Lincoln's Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow (low numbers)
1 White-throated Sparrow
802 White-crowned Sparrows
155 Dark-eyed Juncos (low numbers)
1 Yellow-headed Blackbird
498 meadowlarks
3 Eastern Meadowlarks
96 Western Meadowlarks
870 unidentified blackbirds
10840 Red-winged Blackbirds
5518 Brown-headed Cowbirds
234 Brewer's Blackbirds
77 Common Grackles
3480 Great-tailed Grackles
3 Orange-crowned Warblers
151 Yellow-rumped Warblers (high numbers)
72 Northern Cardinals
2 Pyrrhuloxias
Anthony Hewetson; Lubbock