Date: 12/19/24 8:55 am From: Jorgensen, Joel via groups.io <Joel.Jorgensen...> Subject: [NEBirds] Harlan County CBC results
The 15th edition of the storied Harlan County Christmas Bird Count was held Monday, 16 December 2024. We had ten participants and I thank each one of them for trekking down to Harlan County to help. Weather was good, as a predicted strong breeze of up to 22 mph apparently stayed in bed late and never really got going before dying off almost completely late in the day. Temperatures reached the mid-50s.
It looks like the CBC will end up at 82 species, which is the lowest total since 2014. We had several notable misses and other irruptive species (e.g., Red-breasted Nuthatch, Red Crossbill), just weren't around his year. We also did not have a Couch's Kingbird. A few takeaways:
New count species: Least Sandpiper and Northern Mockingbird
Other highlights/rarities: Red-shouldered Hawk (3rd time on CBC), Short-billed Mew Gull (4th time on the CBC)
Biggest miss: Great Blue Heron - we struggled to find one last year. A little baffling that this species wasn't found during a mild early winter (but see comments below).
Other misses: Northern Bobwhite, Greater Prairie-Chicken, American White Pelican, grebes, large gulls other than Herring and Lesser Black-backed, semi-hardy passerines such as Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Winter Wren.
Another observation of note that is a continuation of recent CBCs is how piscivorous bird numbers have changed since the reservoir "flooded" in the summer of 2019. A massive merganser flock between 10,000-50,000 was fairly reliable on this CBC prior to 2019 and along with it came hundreds of large gulls. This year we had about 4,000 Common Mergansers and only 33 Herring Gulls. These numbers are similar to other post-2018 CBCs. The changes in the fishery also probably explains the absence of Am. White Pelicans, any grebes and low numbers (3) of Double-crested Cormorants during a mild year. I don't fully understand what happened, just reporting what I'm seeing.
Thanks again to those who helped.
Joel
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Joel Jorgensen | Nongame Bird Program Manager
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
2200 N 33rd St. | Lincoln, NE 68503
<joel.jorgensen...><mailto:<joel.jorgensen...> | 402-471-5440
