Save the Eurasian Wigeon!

Scanning the results of the Great Backyard Bird Count, it looks like the Brooklyn Bird Club can claim at least one save for New York. Saturday’s Brooklyn Bird Club trip with Steve Nanz turned up the only two Eurasian Wigeons found in the state. Update: a later version of the results shows two Eurasian Wigeons in Mettituck, so it’s turns out not to be a save after all.

That trip was also one of two reports to find Killdeer. (The other was also in Mattituck.) and one of two to find Northern Gannet. (The other was also at Breezy Point.) We were one of four to find Black Scoter.

From there things start to get more common. We were one of four to find Horned Grebe. We were one of five to find Great Cormorant, Sanderling, Surf Scoter, and Red-throated Loon.

On a personal note, I’m still waiting for yesterday’s six Boat-tailed Grackles to be approved. (I have pictures. The birds were there. I promise you.) Update: the report was approved so it’s an official save. I was the only birder in the state to find Boat-tailed Grackle over that weekend.

I’m one of eight New York State reports to find Hermit Thrush (and the only one to find it in Brooklyn.) I found two of the eight Yellow-rumped Warblers reported in the state. I’m one of eight people to report Pied-billed Grebe and one of six to report Long-eared Owl (and I’m sure five of the six Long-eared Owls were the same bird that’s been hanging out in Prospect Park for the last two months.) I was one of eight people to report Double-crested Cormorant. Not a bad weekend.

I’m not sure if there were any obvious misses for New York state. Purple Sandpiper was probably the biggest miss. Have they all headed north, or did nobody look for them? We could well have seen them at Breezy Point, but we didn’t. It would have been nice to get more pelagic species, but those are tough. Barrow’s Goldeneye was a maybe that didn’t appear. I’m surprised nobody got the Pacific Loon that’s been hanging out upstate. Maybe it’s left, or maybe it’s just stuck in moderation? We got all the diurnal raptors one could reasonably expect, and nine of the ten owls. (We missed Boreal.) There aren’t any Laughing Gulls. but that’s to be expected at this time of year. Otherwise the only gull we missed was Black-legged Kittiwake; and that’s essentially a pelagic species. If anyone found something really unusual, it hasn’t gotten through the moderation queue yet. Total count for the state (at the time of this update; a few late reports are still trickling in) was 156 species and 257,069 individual birds, not bad for a cold February weekend. The top 18 species for the state were:

I’m sure Rock Pigeon and probably House Sparrow and European Starling are vastly underreported. It’s just not that much fun to walk the city streets and count the scuzz doves. :-)

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