A few more cowbirds for the GBBC

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — This evening, I made a last ditch effort to find the Osprey below the Joe Pool Dam, but the bird didn’t show itself. As you can see from the GBBC results map, this bird would have been sort of in the northern tier of inland Ospreys reported this year. Oh well.

I drove to Fox Hollow Park to finish out the day and was disappointed to discover that pedestrians had flushed most of the ducks I was hoping to find in the little pond. A few ring-necks and a female scaup were still hanging around, though they looked nervous (and the ring-necks eventually bolted). A flock of blackbirds in the trees contained singing red-wings and cowbirds.

After the park visit, I submitted my fourth and final list for this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count:

1. Ring-necked Duck – 5
2. Lesser Scaup – 1
3. Killdeer – 2
4. Ring-billed Gull – 2
5. Mourning Dove – 12
6. American Crow – 1
7. Carolina Chickadee – 1
8. Carolina Wren – 1
9. Bewick’s Wren – 1
10. American Robin – 10
11. Yellow-rumped Warbler – 1
12. White-throated Sparrow – 5
13. Northern Cardinal – 6
14. Red-winged Blackbird – 600
15. Brown-headed Cowbird – 100

The count window closes today, but reports of birds seen during the count can be submitted through the end of February, according to Audubon At Home’s Science Coordinator Rob Fergus.

So, the data will continue to change as records come in, but it looks as though Texas will be the state with the most species reported. California is the only other state that’s even close, but I should think we are safe from a last minute takeover. Oddly, though, Texas wasn’t even in the top five for the number of checklists submitted. New York was trouncing everybody else in that department, last I checked.

My sole claim to fame is that I added one species to the Texas list: White-winged Scoter. See the nice green dot on this map? Oh yes … scoters!

On second thought, I guess I shouldn’t celebrate too soon; another report of the species could still come in. After all, two White-winged Scoters were hanging around in Grayson County, but they haven’t been reported on Texbirds since Feb. 10. and may no longer be present.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how things stand once all the numbers have come in. It appears that the number of individual birds reported this year will be higher than last year’s figures, but the number of species might be lower. Stay tuned, and consider participating in next year’s count!

Related posts:

1. Monk Parakeets and other GBBC goodies
2. Counting Canvasbacks and cormorants
3. Updates: Grenada Dove, GBBC, barcodes
4. Scoters! Scoters! Scoters!
5. Brown Pelicans in Dallas County!