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The 2024 Christmas Bird Count for the Lexington Count Circle was conducted on Saturday, Dec. 21.
Count day, which began at 6 a.m. for those parties searching for owls, was partly cloudy with a few snow flurries early in the day. The temperatures remained in the low to mid-30s throughout the day.
This year marked the 99th Lexington area bird count and the 88th consecutive count for the area.
A total of 78 species and 7,496 individual birds were identified this year on count day. The number of species is fifth highest number of species counted; 80 species were recorded in 2020. This year’s total number of individuals was less than last year’s count of 8,909 and the most recent high count of 14,910 individuals in 2015 and well below the record of 33,900 in 1976.
This year the birds were scattered because food was plentiful in the fields and woodlots. Over the past 10 years, an average of 8,166 individuals and 76 species have been counted.
This year’s count was highlighted by the presence of a record number of chipping sparrows being seen. In addition, a merlin was seen at Lake Robertson and a large number of American robins were seen. A barn owl, eastern-screech owls, a barred owl, and a great horned owl were also heard or seen during the count.
Since the first Lexington Area Christmas Bird Count, a cumulative total of 132 species have been identified on the specified count day. In general, about 65 of the 132 species are regularly seen in the county during the winter. The other species are winter migrants that stop through the area and sometimes overwinter or are small groups or individuals that are “wandering” through the area.
The first Lexington area Christmas Bird Count was held in 1922 and during the early years both Postmaster M. G. Lewis and Dr. J.J. Murray, pastor of the Lexington Presbyterian Church, organized the counts. Since 1936, there has been a Christmas Bird Count in the Lexington area every year. For over 35-plus years, Dr. Bob Paxton, a retired Columbia University professor and displaced Lexingtonian, has participated in and coordinated the bird count. Currently, Dr. Dick Rowe, a retired VMI professor, serves as the coordinator of the Lexington Bird Count.
The Christmas Bird Count is directed by the National Audubon Society. All Christmas Bird Counts are scheduled for a single day during the month of December. Volunteer participants try to count all birds within a 15-mile diameter circle. The value of the Christmas Bird Counts is that a “snap shot” of species and individuals in a given area is taken each year and trends in populations can be identified for an area or for the country, overall. Since 1974, the Lexington Bird Count Circle has been centered at Big Spring pond on U.S. 60 and thus we have 40-plus years of data for birds in the count area.
This year, Wayne, Julian, Diana and Amanda Dymacek; Harris, George and Scott Wolfe; Mitch Fridley; Lyle Walker; Lane Norris; Jerry and Glenda Jackson; Terri Bsullak; Christa Bowden; Barry Guitar; Nancy Gray; Vic and Pamela Crane; Lu Dooley; Sue Piepho; Dennis Bussey, Cinder Stanton; Danny and Susan Hoehne; Lisa and Jackie Gay-Milliken, Steve and Susan Hodapp; Bob Biersak; John and Sarah Burleson; John Pancake; Ann Olson; Laura Neale; Kip Brooks; Elise Sheffield; Bonnie Bernstein; Susan Avery; Cat Lipp; Julie Robinson; Wendy and Steve Richards; Claudette Artwick; Paul, Lock, Han, and Peter Yin Cabe; Nathan Bowden; John Maluski, Andy Johnson; and Kit Huffman were able to participate in the count.
This year’s complete count was as follows: pied-billed grebe 4; great blue heron 13; black vulture 89; turkey vulture 336; Canada goose 304; green-winged teal 4; American black duck 5; mallard 23; gadwall 1; ring-necked duck 7; hooded merganser 20; common merganser 32; bald eagle 9; northern harrier 6; sharp-shinned hawk 7; Cooper’s hawk 5; unidentified accipiter species 1; red-shouldered hawk 5; red-tailed hawk 26; American kestrel 20; merlin 1; wild turkey 46; Wilson’s snipe 6; rock pigeon 245; mourning dove 135; barn owl 1; eastern screech-owl 10; great horned owl 1; barred owl 1; belted kingfisher 11.
Also, red-headed woodpecker 1; redbellied woodpecker 64; yellow-bellied sapsucker 38; downy woodpecker 46; hairy woodpecker 14; northern flicker 38; pileated woodpecker 24; eastern phoebe 14; blue jay 439; American crow 558; fish crow 18; common raven 27; blackcapped chickadee 1; Carolina chickadee 135; unidentified chickadee species 29; tufted titmouse 181; red-breasted nuthatch 1; white-breasted nuthatch 72; brown creeper 7; Carolina wren 79; winter wren 5; golden-crowned kinglet 13; ruby-crowned kinglet 6.
Also, eastern bluebird 251; hermit thrush 23; American robin 1,308; gray catbird 1; northern mockingbird 87; European starling 874; cedar waxwing 84; yellow- rumped warbler 143; eastern towhee 15; chipping sparrow 18; field sparrow 28; savannah sparrow 10; fox sparrow 3; song sparrow 79; swamp sparrow 2; whitethroated sparrow 326; white-crowned sparrow 20; dark-eyed junco 333; northern cardinal 201; red-winged blackbird 53; eastern meadowlark 50; common grackle 100; brown-headed cowbird 1; purple finch 54; house finch 135; American goldfinch 89; and house sparrow 24.
MERLIN (Dick Rowe photo)
