Despite less than ideal conditions - cold and windy - teams of birders from North Shore, Huntington and South Shore Audubon and Queen County Bird Club headed out into the woods and on to the beaches on December 17th to participate in the 112th Annual Christmas Bird Count. The Christmas Count began as an antidote to traditional Christmas bird hunts, and is the longest running citizen science survey in the world. Last year’s count shattered records. A total of 2,215 counts and 62,624 people tallied over 60 million birds. Counts took place in all 50 states, all Canadian provinces, plus 107 count circles in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacifi c Islands. The fi rst ever CBC tally was submitted from Haiti, where the count circle is located at Les Cayes, the birthplace of John James Audubon. In Colombia, the Audubon count is a crucially important for monitoring biodiversity. The Northern Nassau count circle extends from the western edge of Manhasset Bay east to Caumsett Park, and south to Westbury. Despite the absence of bird species found on previous counts, and low numbers, with some species being represented by only one or two individuals, 110 species and 39,124 individuals were located. Thirteen of them were unusual for our area,

including Painted Bunting, Razorbills, Orange-crowned Warbler, King Eider, Pine Warbler, Greater White-fronted Goose, and Cackling Goose, a fi rst for the count. The most abundant species were Canada Geese (no surprise) with over 10,000 counted. Second runners up were Greater Scaup with over 7000 located in Hempstead Harbor. Coming in at third at over 3000 were European Starlings. Counted in numbers over 1000 were Ring-billed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Mallards, American Black Ducks and a raft of Long-tailed Ducks (aka Oldsquaw). Notable absences included Black-crowned Night Heron (recorded on 54 out of 59 counts), Lesser Scaup (49 out of 59), Common Merganser (36 out of 59), Greater Yellowlegs (37 out of 59), and American Kestrel (53 out of 59). Some counters went out as early as 4am to track down 18 Eastern Screech and 11 great Horned Owls. By 5pm Counters adjourned to Muttontown Preserve Nature Center for the compilation and a delicious dinner supplied by Huntington Audubon and friends. Compliers Glenn Quinn and Mary Normandia took the count fi gures, which will be added to the hundreds from all corners of the globe, to add to the worlds’ best citizen complied data base.

Northern Nassau Christmas Count Results