Results of the First Annual CB Winter Solstice Bird Count

Let’s get the excuses out of the way first. OK. There are almost no insects at the CB. Plus, the wild food crop is abysmal. There are no pecans, only a few of last years Ilex fruits, no hackberries, no buckthorn fruits, no grapes, no mallow apples or pods, no beans of any kind, no composite achenes, no grass seed, no citrus fruit, no acorns, a tiny few coral berry fruits, no persimmons, no green brier, no poison ivy, no Rhus of any kind, . Did I leave anything out? Well. There aint any of that either. Or, there is almost no bird food in these parts except for what we put out for Class Aves. Mercy!

No more excuses.

The dawn broke with the last of the clouds moseying off toward the east horizon. Espy the waning crescent moon. Anon, Ogma’s fiery gaze lit all up. That’s right. What could we then espy in the light of day? That the rain fell hard last night. The rain gauge read 2.5 inches. But that was for the several days or maybe a week, not just last night. Yet for the first time in the calendar year 2011 of the Julian, the pastures featured puddles. Yes. The CB had the first standing water of the current Julian year. For heaven’s sake!

The day proved clear and pleasant throughout. Not too cool, not too hot with temperature mostly in the 50s to mid 60s. Nary a cloud in the sky. The wind was light from the NNW.


See here is a foot long stick, stuck in the ground. See how long its shadow falls at high noon. You can't get further tilted from Ogma ever, in these parts.

All righty. We counted all the birds that lit in the yard or flew directly over the yard. Birds seen nearby the yard, but not in or over it are included and so noted. Birds seen during the week, but not counted today are so noted

The Actual Pitiful Count Total

Turkey Vulture 1
Black Vulture 2
Cooper’s Hawk 1 seen yesterday
Red-tailed Hawk 1
White- winged Dove 22
Rock Dove 1
Eurasian Collared Dove 2 seen during week of count
Inca Dove 4
Roadrunner 1 seen during week of count
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 1 seen nearby today
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 1
Bewick’s Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 1
House Sparrow 46
Great-tailed Grackle 2 seen nearby
Northern Cardinal 2
Pyrrhuloxia 1
House Finch 10
American Goldfinch 2 (5 seen yesterday)
Lesser Goldfinch 18
Chipping Sparrow 7

The End - Pitiful - 26 species, not all today. Mercy! What’s really sad is the near absence of mostly insectivorous species. No warblers, no kinglets, no vireos, almost no wrens. One mockingbird. Hmm. We have had a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet and a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers, but we can’t recollect if they appeared during the count week. If so, that would be two more species.