Counting Birds in the Bronx

Posted in Around the Garden on January 3 2011, by Plant Talk

In what has become an annual holiday tradition, a group of intrepid bird watchers gathered at The New York Botanical Garden early on the day after Christmas (and just ahead of the Boxing Day Blizzard) to survey the Garden’s avian residents. Led by Steve Nanz, the group fanned out over the Garden’s 250-acres to count our feathered friends. In the end, the annual census was called early on account of the snow.

Despite that, the group still managed to spot 36 species, and a few rare birds, the highlight being a beautiful little Saw-whet Owl (pictured at right).

Here are the complete results:

Location: New York Botanical Garden

Observation date: 12/26/10

Start time: 7:15am

End time: 1:00pm

Conditions: 27-29 degrees. Windchill was approx. 13 degrees. Snow flurries began by 10:30am. Heavier, blowing snow by noon. By 1pm conditions too poor to continue birding.

Observers: Shane Blodgett, Rob Jett, Heydi Lopes, Steve Nanz

Number of species: 36

American Black Duck (3)

Mallard (85)

Hooded Merganser (8)

Wild Turkey (2)

Great Blue Heron (1)

Cooper’s Hawk (1)

Red-tailed Hawk (5)

Herring Gull (20)

Mourning Dove (15)

Great Horned Owl (2)

Northern Saw-whet Owl (1, Rock Garden)

Red-bellied Woodpecker (4)

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (1)

Downy Woodpecker (1)

Hairy Woodpecker (4)

Northern Flicker (1)

Blue Jay (10)

American Crow (67)

Black-capped Chickadee (25)

Tufted Titmouse (5)

White-breasted Nuthatch (4)

Brown Creeper (1)

Carolina Wren (1)

Winter Wren (1)

Hermit Thrush (5)

American Robin (70)

Northern Mockingbird (3)

European Starling (29)

Fox Sparrow (3)

Song Sparrow (2)

White-throated Sparrow (125)

Dark-eyed Junco (105)

Northern Cardinal (10)

House Finch (15)

American Goldfinch (8)

House Sparrow (6)