In the 2017 Kingston Segment of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, 36 Species Were Found
Snow Goose / 610
Canada Goose / 482 / 605 / 173 / 108 / 546 / 1181
Mallard / 7 / 10 / 2 / 19 / 2
Great Blue Heron / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 2 / 1
Black Vulture / 2 / 4 / 4 / 1
Turkey Vulture / 1 / 4 / 15 / 17 / 8 / 17
American Eagle / 2 / 1 / 1 / 1
Cooper's Hawk / 1 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 1
Red-tailed Hawk / 1 / 2 / 2 / 3 / 5
Ring-billed Gull / 5 / 106 / 20 / 45 / 65
Herring Gull / 4 / 4 / 34 / 37
Great Black-backed Gull / 1
Mourning Dove / 30 / 44 / 9 / 1 / 11 / 20
Great Horned Owl / 1
Screech owl / 1 (12/18)
Belted Kingfisher / 1 / 1 / 1 / 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker / 6 / 9 / 11 / 11 / 13 / 11
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker / 1 / 1 / 2 / 1
Downy Woodpecker / 2 / 4 / 5 / 9 / 9 / 18
Hairy Woodpecker / 1 / 4 / 1
Northern Flicker / 7 / 9 / 6 / 4 / 3 / 11
Pileated Woodpecker / 1
Blue Jay / 22 / 13 / 20 / 1 / 45 / 29
American Crow / 53 / 5 / 44 / 122 / 13 / 126
Fish Crow / 1 / 11 / 3
Carolina Chickadee / 10 / 13 / 20
Black-capped Chickadee / 4 / 13 / 6
Chickadee SP / 25 / 2 / 25 / 31 / 28 / 23
Tufted Titmouse / 17 / 8 / 7 / 18 / 12 / 27
Red-breasted Nuthatch / 2
White-breasted Nuthatch / 2 / 5 / 6 / 14 / 8 / 21
Brown Creeper / 1 / 1 / 1 / 2
Carolina Wren / 9 / 4 / 3 / 7 / 18 / 10
Winter Wren / 1 / 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet / 1 (12/18) / 2 / 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet / 2
Eastern Bluebird / 10 / 4 / 21 / 14
Hermit Thrush / 1
American Robin / 31 / 145 / 231 / 290 / 40 / 77
Grey Catbird / 1
Northern Mockingbird / 4 / 5 / 3 / 3 / 5
European Starling / 29 / 255 / 107 / 45 / 5 / 31
Cedar Waxwing / 5 / 4 / 20
Yellow-rumped Warbler / 28 / 12 / 10 / 30 / 2
American Tree Sparrow / 3 / 3 / 8
Field Sparrow / 1 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 13
Savannah Sparrow / 1
Song Sparrow / 3 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 11 / 9
White-throated Sparrow / 36 / 23 / 57 / 67 / 55 / 70
Chipping Sparrow / 15
Dark-eyed Junco / 57 / 21 / 34 / 145 / 78 / 93
Northern Cardinal / 8 / 12 / 8 / 10 / 17 / 23
House Finch / 22 / 15 / 4 / 5 / 17 / 6
American Goldfinch / 18 / 3 / 29 / 14 / 19 / 13
Osprey / 1 (12/18)
Double-crested cormorant / 1
Species / 39 / 40 / 36 / 33 / 31 / 43
Total Number / 902 / 1365 / 1390 / 994 / 1128 / 2624
In the 2017 Kingston segment of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, 36 species were found ( with an additional 3 species [osprey, golden crowned kinglet and screech owl observed (or heard) the following day. As usual, Canada Geese were the most frequent bird in the count. Generally, numbers for the usual species were average to a little lower than usual. We only saw one turkey vulture all day, a new low, and very few gulls or robins.
Total birds logged by our counters for the day (Karen Linder, Louise Wilkins, Cymie Payne and Laura Hawkins) was 902, with a little help from Mike Brill and from Stephen Elston, who reported seeing an osprey at Carnegie Lake Dam (not really our counting territory, but a notable bird, as osprey generally do not persist to this late date in the Kingston area). Cymie and Stephen also heard a screech owl on the evening of December 18th. We saw two immature bald eagles flying towards Rocky Hill on the count day. Unfortunately, the Kingston eagle's nest fell to the ground during high winds earlier this month.
The highlight of the count for me was watching a chickadee popping in and out of a round hole on a dead tree trunk. It was cute enough to be a Christmas card, but I was too busy grinning to grab my camera. Cedar waxwings in the Princeton Nurseries ginkgos, a sultry red fox on the berm behind Barkley Square, shimmering light on the winter weeds and some excellent raccoon tracks on the seedbeds rounded out the day. Special thanks to Laura Hawkins, who captured the portrait of a double crested cormorant on our count (see attached)
If you could like to join us for the 2018 Christmas Bird Count, please contact Karen Linder at 609-683-0483.