107th Christmas Bird Count

The Southold-North Christmas Count Summary

By Rick Kedenburg

The Orient Christmas Count is one of the oldest in the country. It was started 104 years ago by that renowned naturalist from our area, Roy Latham.  He was instrumental in cataloging almost all the flora and fauna that we know of here on the North Fork and is accepted as having been one of the great naturalists of New York State.  As a background Nationwide Christmas count was started by the Audubon Society in response to the  custom, circa 1900, of shooting birds at random as they flew overhead Christmas Day. Many people were appalled by this practice and embraced the Audubon proposal of counting rather than killing.  Radical-politic for it’s day

The Orient count today is divided into 9 sectors. Our sector is called Southold-North of which Linda and I have had the pleasure of compiling for the last 4 years.  Regardless of the weather it’s always an exciting day as we and the people that help us realize that this is Citizen Science at work.  We all endeavor to get the most accurate number of birds for each species knowing that ornithologists have used this data for over 100 years.  It’s not a contest to get the most species as the fall and spring migration marathons can be.  On the contrary the lack of bird species or numbers can be just as important.  To keep the numbers consistent from year to year we try to cover the same spots each count. Starting at Goldsmiths Inlet parking lot at 7:30 AM we count at such varied sites as Mill Lane, Soundview Avenue, Great Pond, Kenneys Beach, Horton Point, Town Beach, Arshamomaque Pond, and Hummels Pond to name a few.

This last Orient Christmas Count was held on Saturday December 30 2006. The days being so warm this winter we thought that many cold weather, irruptive species, such as Razorbill, Harlequin Duck and Purple Finch would not show thereby reducing our total count.  Last year Southold-North had 66 species, a record for our sector.  Well those three did not show in our sector but we had others, such as the Snow Goose, that were new.  We ended up with 61 species, a respectable amount for us and the Orient count as a whole had 116 +- species.  Final number to be determined, check back for updates.

We were helped this year by seven intrepid assistants who never once complained of the nasty inclemency of the day.

Thank you, John Sepenoski, Heather Cusack, Beth Gustin, Lillian Ball, Tom Rozakis and Bob and Carol Gelling.  Also thanks to Rich Wines and Nancy Gilbert for past years help.  Lastly, we want to thank MaryLaura Lamont , who has been in charge of the Orient Count for 13 years since she took the reins from Paul Stoutenberg.  Without her dedication none of this would happen.

Southold North Results:

Total individuals: 3,230.  Total species 61.

Shelter Island Christmas Count Summary

By Nick Hamblet

The Christmas Bird Count results for all three sections of Shelter Island on 12/30/2006 have come in. This should give you a rough idea of what species were on the island that day and how many of each there were. The numbers are organized by each party section (west led by Nick Hamblet/east led by Rick Sautkulis/and Mashomack led by Mike Scheibel) followed by the totals.

Highlights were northern pintail, lesser scaup, American kestrel, Virginia rail, dunlin, common snipe, Bonaparte's gull, razorbill, Red-headed woodpecker, eastern phoebe, horned lark, red-breasted nuthatch, Nashville warbler, snow bunting and rusty blackbird. No less than six of those birds are Shelter Island year birds for 2006. Most numerous non-passerine was white-winged scoter with 1146 individuals and the most numerous passerine was American robin with 878. So here are the results overall: