Date: 2/26/25 7:47 pm From: Robert Lewis (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Durham NC Christmas Bird Count summary
The Durham count was December 15. Weather was pretty good, mostly overcast, virtually no rain, temperatures between 37 and 52 F.
I'd like to thank previous compilers Jeff Pippen and Jacob Socular for their years of great service! We are the new co-compilers, Bob Lewis and Vanessa Thornburg. It's a bit of a learning curve folks, so this report will not be so long or complete.
We had 26 observers in 14 parties. We recorded 92 species, which I think is pretty average. The biggest number of individuals for any species was 1569 Ring-billed Gulls followed by 890 White-throated Sparrows. We had quite a few saves, species seen only once: Pintail, Lesser Scaup, Turkey, Sharp-shinned, Cooper's, Woodcock, Great-horned Owl, Kestrel, House Wren, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Black-and-White Warbler, Palm Warbler, White-crowned Sparrow (maybe the best bird on the count).
We almost had a very rare bird in count period: a male Painted Bunting seen by many in northeast Durham disappeared a day or two too soon.
