Date: 12/25/25 2:57 pm From: Walker, thomas via groups.io <thomas.walker...> Subject: [NEBirds] North Platte CBC
A little tardy on the reporting here...
The North Platte CBC was held on December 17th. 15 Field participants and 4 Feeder Watchers contributed to the count.
Weather was almost perfect in the morning, but by 10:30 AM winds picked up with gusts in the 25-40 mph range which continued the rest of the day. It was tough to find much other than open water or open country birds after that. We managed to find a total of 77 species on the day - which is right on the average for the previous 10 years but well below our high of 86 species, and a total of 19,097 individual birds reported (which was several thousand short of where it could have been but Starlings and Robins wore participants out flying overhead in small to large groups throughout the day). Four "count week species" (American Coot, White-winged Dove, Hairy Woodpecker and White-throated Sparrow) eluded us on count day. There was an ice storm in the North Platte area less than a week before the count which may have hurt us on passerines.
Four Greater Yellowlegs on the South Platte River were the only addition to the cumulative species list across all years - which now sits at 143 species.
* Cooper's Hawk - recorded in 15 consecutive years prior to this year
* Mourning Dove - found in 9 of last 11 years
* White-winged Dove - found in 7 of last 8 years
* Hairy Woodpecker - recorded in 17 consecutive years prior to this year
* Golden-crowned Kinglet - found in 12 of previous 15 years
* Finches - wasn't there supposed to be a fallout this winter - is that still yet to come? Only got House Finch and American Goldfinch...
Near misses (one individual found during the count):
* Lesser Scaup
* Long-tailed Duck
* Double-crested Cormorant
* Sharp-shinned Hawk
* Merlin
* Prairie Falcon
* Harris's Sparrow
* Several other species with more than 1 individual but only recorded at one location...
High notes:
* Long-tailed Duck - third year in a row
* Fairly good waterfowl numbers and species count
* 15 Trumpeter Swans (there were "hundreds" in locations ¼-5 miles outside of the circle)
* 6 Wood Ducks - always a good CBC species to get
* 21 Mountain Bluebirds
* 13 Northern Harriers - pushing record high count from 8 years ago
* Nearly 3,500 American Robins (which may have reached a record high count if participants recorded all they saw)
* Almost exactly the same participant list as last year - minus 3 plus a couple more - it is good to have consistency there!
Thank you to all that participated! Big thank you to Julie Geiser and Boni Edwards for scouting early in the week and for helping with local logistics!!!
