Vicksburg CBC: Exciting waterbirds abound
VICKSBURG, MISS. — Yesterday, Bruce Reid, Blaine Elliott, and I birded a small but very productive section of the Vicksburg Christmas Bird Count circle. We were joined at various times by John and Len Carpenter and by The Vicksburg Post’s Pam Hitchins and Katie Carter (see their story and photo gallery).
Highlights
The count totaled 103 species — if not a new high then close to it. Our group had just over 80 species, including several not reported by other groups and significant numbers of waterbirds. Some of our highlights:
- Blue-winged Teal – 5 (four hens and a drake; rare on the count)
- Red-breasted Merganser – 1 (reported only twice since 1980)
- Anhinga – 7 (several other groups also reported; rare in winter)
- White Ibis – 110 (an order of magnitude above any previous report)
- Bald Eagle – 1 (ours plus another made a new count high)
- Black-necked Stilt – 1 (new species for the count!)
In pictures
American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)
American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) and a cormorant
Hundreds of pelicans, cormorants, egrets, and other species congregated in borrow pits along the levee.
One of five Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis) that, true to their name, were hanging out with some cows.
Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)
The distinctive silhouette of an Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)
A large flock of American White Ibises flew overhead as the sun was setting. I count 110 in this photo (there are also cormorants); the previous high count on the Vicksburg CBC was 17.
A cropped section of the White Ibis flock (poor quality due to low light) showing that most of the birds were brownish immatures.
At dusk, the sky suddenly filled with wave after wave of cormorants; they stretched from horizon to horizon.
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)
Count week bird
Friday, Bruce Reid, Reid Bishop, Kevin Mahoney, and I had gone out on the Mississippi River in a boat. While scanning a flock of Ring-billed Gulls, I picked up something interesting:
Huh?
It was a Laughing Gull!
Rare away from the coast even during the summer, this was a great bird. It was very actively feeding, and we gave wild pursuit in the boat, zigzagging back and forth in an attempt to get a decent photo. And then….
Gorgeous winter-plumaged Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla)
Though we couldn’t find it again on the day of the count, the bird was inside the count circle and even in our own territory, so it makes an excellent count week record.
Territory
Our territory was a narrow swath of land along the west bank of the Mississippi River, roughly between Mound, Louisiana, and Delta, Louisiana. It’s shown on the map below, where you can see a sharp demarcation between agricultural fields and wetlands and woods nearer the river. The mainline levees — two huge walls of earth constructed after the 1927 flood — straitjacket the river, leaving only a narrow floodplain between them. These “batture lands” contain bottomland hardwood forest remnants and “borrow pits,” pits dug during the construction of the levees that are now filled with water and hold a lot of birds.
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Good stuff! Congrats on the great sightings. My first CBC of the year was canceled due to the snow.
Oh no! Sorry about that — hope it can be rescheduled?
Thanks for enjoying this one by proxy. :)
You are really where you belong.
What fun your ‘work’ is!
Looks like an excellent count, David, and you had some nice surprises for the week. I’m glad it was a good first count in your new location!