Random Rants and Ramblings: Great Backyard Bird Count

It was mostly a good day to go birding. The water of the Puget Sound might have been a little choppy, so I might have missed a few birds on the water, but I still saw plenty. Particularly noteworthy were the Brandt’s Cormorants, which are currently the most numerous birds reported in University Place.

If you had read any of my previous posts, I said that I was skewing the Brandt’s Cormorants. That’s actually still true. I added 164 today. I threw together a quick panorama to assist with the count. There were some Double-crested Cormorants on the North Dock with the Brandt’s Cormorants, so it is possible that my count was a little high due to mistaken identity, but it should be fairly accurate.

We now have some competition. San Juan Capistrano had 60 reported today, and it looks like Tacoma has added 76 for a total of 89. My three submitted checklists (one for each day) give University Place a total of 230. We still have a day, and numerous checklists probably remain uncounted, but we appear to have a shot at finishing as the top reporting locality… with only one person reporting them.

I also visited Chambers Creek on the Steilacoom side. In the trees, there were at least 15 Great Blue Herons in the trees across the creek.

One more noteworthy sighting. For the first time ever, I have properly identified a Wilson;s Snipe at Chambers Creek Properties. I have suspected Snipes in the past, but this one was slightly more cooperative. It grabbed my attention by flying behind… probably cattails. It then flew behind a smaller bush that only partially obscured it. I had my camera and could see the bill and back well enough to add it to my checklist.

Here’s today’s checklist (sorry about the format change if noticeable, but I still haven’t received my email):

Locality: University Place, Pierce County, WA
Observation Date: FEB 19, 2012
Start Time: 7:15 AM
Snow Depth: No snow was present
Total Birding Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
Location Type: City or County Park
Party Size: 2
Skill: good
Weather: good
Habitat(s):
scrub
grassland
freshwater
salt water
Number of species: 35
All Reported: no
Species - Count
Canada Goose - 24
American Wigeon - 23
Mallard - 18
Northern Shoveler - 1
Ring-necked Duck - 1
Greater/Lesser Scaup - 8
Surf Scoter - 7
Bufflehead - 4
Common Goldeneye - 4
Hooded Merganser - 2
Common Merganser - 3
Red-breasted Merganser - 3
Pied-billed Grebe - 1
Horned Grebe - 2
Red-necked Grebe - 1
Brandt's Cormorant - 164
Double-crested Cormorant - 6
Great Blue Heron - 15
Bald Eagle - 3
American Coot - 4
Wilson's Snipe - 1
gull sp. - 46
Pigeon Guillemot - 1
Rock Pigeon - 1
Band-tailed Pigeon - 2
Anna's Hummingbird - 1
Belted Kingfisher - 1
American/Northwestern Crow - 92
Black-capped Chickadee - 3
American Robin - 1
European Starling - 28
Spotted Towhee - 1
Song Sparrow - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 4
Western Meadowlark - 3

I had my camera and managed to get a few shots today. It might have taken a little more time than ideal, but they are up.