Greetings All:
On 29 December 2018, twelve brave birders (Brandon Best, Justin
Bosler, Canyon Clark, Jeremy Clark, Manuel De Leon, Drew Harvey,
Anthony Hewetson, Ellen Hildebrandt, Phillip Kite, Rich Kostecke, Rob
Lee, Lena Zappia) checked out the truly chill (but pleasantly not
windy) conditions at White River Lake. All in all we racked up 109
species of birds (a genuinely low tally 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 exception to this songbird situation was sparrows with
numbers that were in good to very good numbers.
The list: numbers, species (abbreviated commentary where called for):
56 Greater White-fronted Geese (high numbers)
290 Cackling Geese
18 Canada Geese
2 Wood Ducks
2 Blue-winged Teals (unusual species, high numbers)
3 Northern Shovelers (low numbers)
44 Gadwalls
57 American Wigeons
16 Mallards
45 Northern Pintails
15 Green-winged Teals
7 Redheads
5 Ring-necked Ducks
2 Lesser Scaups
12 Buffleheads
1 male Common Goldenye (unusual species)
41 Hooded Mergansers
47 Common Mergansers (low numbers)
4 Northern Bobwhites
100 Wild Turkeys
2 Pied-billed Grebes
1 Eared Grebe
9 Rock Pigeons (unusual species - first in over ten years)
25 Eurasian Collared Doves
41 White-winged Doves (high numbers)
214 Mourning Doves
51 American Coots
215 Sandhill Cranes
1 Killdeer
1 Wilson's Snipe
2 Ring-billed Gulls (low numbers0
92 Double-crested Cormorants
18 Great Blue Herons
11 Northern Harriers
2 Cooper's Hawks
1 unidentified buteo
20 Red-tailed Hawks
1 Ferruginous Hawk
2 Barn Owls
5 Eastern Screech Owls
4 Great Horned Owls
3 Belted Kingfishers
38 Golden-fronted Woodpeckers
6 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (high numbers)
42 Ladder-backed Woodpeckers
1 Downy Woodpecker
25 Northern Flickers
20 American Kestrels
3 Merlins (high numbers)
4 Eastern Phoebes
16 Loggerhead Shrikes
11 Blue Jays
13 Chihuahuan Ravens
10 Common Ravens
2 Horned Larks
25 Black-crested Titmice
5 Verdins
3 Bushtits (unusual species)
3 Red-breasted Nuthatches (high species)
1 Brown Creeper
3 Canyon Wrens (high numbers)
10 House Wrens (high numbers)
2 Winter Wrens
4 Marsh Wrens
3 Carolina Wrens
37 Bewick's Wrens
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
49 Ruby-crowned Kinglets (high numbers)
15 Eastern Bluebirds
137 Mountain Bluebirds
3 Hermit Thrushes
509 American Robins
7 Curve-billed Thrashers
7 Brown Thrashers
62 Northern Mockingbirds
116 European Starlings
125 Cedar Waxwings
47 House Finches
31 American Goldfinches
162 Spotted Towhees (high numbers)
1 Eastern x Spotted Towhee (unusual form)
4 Rufous-crowned Sparrows
2 American Tree Sparrows (unusual species)
66 Chipping Sparrows (high numbers)
156 Field Sparrows (high numbers)
14 Vesper Sparrows
15 Lark Buntings
95 Savannah Sparrows
1 Grasshopper Sparrow (unusual species)
3 LeConte's Sparrows (high numbers)
43 Fox Sparrows (high numbers)
440 Song Sparrows (high numbers)
69 Lincoln's Sparrows (high numbers)
14 Swamp Sparrows (high numbers)
5 White-throated Sparrows
13 Harris's Sparrows (high numbers)
961 White-crowned Sparrows
250 Dark-eyed Juncos
186 unidentified meadowlarks
2 Eastern Meadowlarks
70 Western Meadowlarks
500 unidentified blackbirds
432 Red-winged Blackbirds
138 Brown-headed Cowbirds
1 Rusty Blackbird (unusual species)
309 Brewer's Blackbirds
20 Great-tailed Grackles
2 Orange-crowned Warblers
9 Yellow-rumped Warblers
159 Northern Cardinals
45 Pyrrhuloxias (high numbers)
Anthony Hewetson; Lubbock