Greetings All:
On 16 December 2018, seven brave birders (Canyon Clark, Jeremy Clark,
Anthony Hewetson, Phillip Kite, Rob Lee, Richard Redmond, Lena Zappia)
braved the chilly but pleasant conditions at Muleshoe NWR. All in all
we racked up 63 species of birds (at the low end of average for the
count) with numbers as would be expected for surprisingly good water
levels but poor seed, fruit, and prey crops.
The list: numbers, species (abbreviated commentary where called for):
1 Ross's Geese (unusual species)
12 Canada Geese
7 Northern Shovelers
3 American Wigeons
24 Mallards
400 Northern Pintails (high numbers)
27 Green-winged Teals
3 Redheads
1 Common Merganser (unusual species)
34 Northern Bobwhites
4 Eurasian Collared Doves
1 White-winged Dove (first ever record for the count)
89 Mourning Doves
1 Greater Roadrunner
1 Killdeer
1 Wilson's Snipe
11 Northern Harriers
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
2 Cooper's Hawks
2 unidentified buteos
7 Red-tailed Hawks
2 Ferruginous Hawks
1 Barn Owl
3 Great Horned Owls
3 Burrowing Owls
1 Long-eared Owl
2 Short-eared Owls
9 Ladder-backed Woodpeckers
5 Northern Flickers
12 American Kestrels
1 Merlin
1 Peregrine Falcon (unusual species)
2 Prairie Falcons
17 Loggerhead Shrikes
2 American Crows (unusual species)
10 Horned Larks
2 House Wrens (unusual species)
3 Marsh Wrens
5 Bewick's Wrens
Cactus Wren (count week)
7 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Hermit Thrush (unusual species)
1 American Robin
8 Curve-billed Thrashers
8 European Starlings
5 House Sparrows
2 American Pipits
13 House Finches
2 Cassin's Finches (unusual species)
7 unidentified longspurs
33 Lapland Longspurs
5 Spotted Towhees
1 Rufous-crowned Sparrow (unusual species)
5 Vesper Sparrows
69 Savannah Sparrows
2 Fox Sparrows (unusual species)
47 Song Sparrows (high numbers)
2 Lincoln's Sparrows
2 Swamp Sparrows
356 White-crowned Sparrows
52 Dark-eyed Juncos
105 unidentified meadowlarks
8 Eastern Meadowlarks (high numbers)
11 Western Meadowlarks
16 Red-winged Blackbirds
72 Brewer's Blackbirds
1 Common Yellowthroat
Anthony Hewetson; Lubbock