The first Lower Platte River Christmas Bird Count (CBC) took place on 4 January 2018. It was a hoot starting a new CBC and I was not certain about what would be recorded, especially considering the recent spell of extremely cold weather. Below, I provide a summary of the CBC and rundown of the results.
Coverage area: The new CBC encompasses a large chunk of Sarpy County and adjacent areas of Cass County. The big bend in the Platte River that forms the border of much of Sarpy County is included in the CBC. The CBC circle includes popular public areas such as Mahoney, Platte River and Schramm state parks, Louisville State Recreation Area and Chalco Hills and Prairie Queen recreation areas. Also included in the circle are the towns of Gretna, Louisville, Springfield and Cedar Creek. A map of the area is provided below.
Conditions: It was very cold ahead of the Lower Platte River CBC and it was very cold the day of the CBC. Low temperatures were around zero degrees and high temperatures were in the upper teens. It was cloudy in the morning but the sun came out in the afternoon. Fortunately, winds were light. Lakes, streams and rivers, including the Platte River, were approximately 99% frozen.
Species total: A total of 71 species was recorded for the day, which is better than I thought we’d get following the Arctic blast and also considering this was the first year of the count.
Notable species: A Townsend’s Solitaire was perhaps the bird of the day, but also good were a Trumpeter Swan, two Hermit Thrushes and three Rusty Blackbirds. Also notable were the 15 species of waterfowl considering the limited amount of open water. I thought it was possible we’d struggle to get more than just a couple species of waterfowl.
Notable high counts: Without previous years of data to reference, it is a little challenging to know what are high counts. However, the 15,032 Mallards, 85 Red-tailed Hawks, 9 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 34 Yellow-rumped Warblers and 7 Fox Sparrow were all healthy figures.
Notable misses: There were no glaring misses which was certainly possible during the first year of the CBC. I thought we’d get a Pileated Woodpecker but we did not get that species. Other species that could be considered mild misses include Northern Bobwhite, Ring-necked Pheasant, Northern Shrike, Winter Wren, Spotted Towhee, and White-crowned Sparrow. Purple Finch, which I thought would be a lock, was a near miss with only a singleton being sighted.
Participants: a big thank you to counters Mary Bomberger Brown, Lauren Dinan, Kenny Dinan, Larry Einemann, William Flack, Angie Hammitt, Alice Heckman, Joel Jorgensen, Clem Klaphake, Loren and Babs Padelford, Don and Janis Paseka, Theresa Pella, Justin Rink, Gary Roberts, Shari Schwartz, Ruthie Stearns, T.J. Walker.
There will be more opportunities in the coming years to say things about the birds observed during any one Lower Platte River CBC once a few years of data are collected. A full rundown of the species observed in 2018 follows below:
Greater White-fronted Goose 5
Snow Goose 32
Ross’s Goose 1
Cackling Goose 11
Canada Goose 5553
Trumpeter Swan 1
Gadwall 3
American Wigeon 2
Mallard 15032
Green-winged Teal 11
Redhead 3
Ring-necked Duck 1
Common Goldeneye 12
Hooded Merganser 3
Common Merganser 57
Wild Turkey 51
Great Blue Heron 5
Bald Eagle 46
Northern Harrier 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3
Cooper’s Hawk 4
Red-tailed Hawk 85
Rough-legged Hawk 10
American Kestrel 7
Merlin 2
Rock Pigeon 53
Eurasian Collard-Dove 87
Mourning Dove 50
Eastern Screech-Owl 2
Great Horned Owl 3
Barred Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 59
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2
Downy Woodpecker 47
Hairy Woodpecker 13
Northern Flicker 27
Blue Jay 137
American Crow 179
Horned Lark 183
Tufted Titmouse 15
Black-capped Chickadee 45
White-breasted Nuthatch 52
Red-breasted Nuthatch 9
Brown Creeper 3
Carolina Wren 18
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
Eastern Bluebird 65
American Robin 394
Hermit Thrush 2
Townsend’s Solitaire 1
European Starling 596
Cedar Waxwing 292
Lapland Longspur 133
Yellow-rumped Warbler 34
American Tree Sparrow 1126
Fox Sparrow 7
Song Sparrow 7
White-throated Sparrow 5
Harris’s Sparrow 48
Dark-eyed Junco 2271
Northern Cardinal 115
Red-winged Blackbird 27
Rusty Blackbird 3
Brown-headed Cowbird 6
Meadowlark (sp.)/Western Meadowlark 272
Purple Finch 1
House Finch 81
Pine Siskin 14
American Goldfinch 276
House Sparrow 206
Good birding!
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