On December 28, 2021, 30 volunteers participated in the 54th annual Oak Orchard Swamp Christmas Bird Count. The National Audubon Society, in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sponsor the Christmas Bird Counts annually throughout the country and beyond in the Americas. Each count consists of a tally of all birds seen within a fifteen-mile diameter circle on one day that falls within a 15- day period at the end of December and the beginning of January. Audubon Christmas Counts have been taking place for 119 years and provide valuable information on the range expansion or narrowing of wintering bird populations.
The center for the Oak Orchard count is the point at which the Genesee-Orleans County line crosses Route 63. The 15-mile diameter circle includes the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, Oak Orchard and Tonawanda State Wildlife Management Areas, the Tonawanda Native American Reservation, the Townships of Alabama and Shelby, the villages of Indian Falls, Medina and Wolcottsville and portions ofMiddleport and Oakfield.
Click here to become a member!
Click here to donate!
Count hours were about average for late December, with a low of 31F and high of 37F. Both morning and afternoon were essentially precipitation free with a gusty morning, with wind conditions improving after noon. Still water was frozen and moving water fully open along Oak Orchard Creek. The Erie Canal provided some open water.
Our observers were afield in nineteen parties from 6:00 AM until 5:45 PM, and in 99 total hours covered 36 miles on foot and 425 miles by car. Participants also clocked 7 nocturnal hours and 42 miles searching for owls. In total, these observers tallied 75 species. 22,832 individual birds were counted. Due to mild conditions before the count date, some waterfowl had not left the region. With little snow on the ground, participants reported that birds were difficult to see in fields and were not present at the roadsides. A small number of irruptive species (those that visit in winter from the boreal forest when cone crops there are low) were noted this year, including Red-breasted Nuthatch and Common Redpoll.
Two notable highest counts were 24 Bald Eagles and 85 Eastern Bluebirds. Those numbers reflect the hard work undertaken by federal and state entities and citizen’s groups to bring those species back from their downward spiraling numbers. Also found lingering in the count area in highest ever count numbers were four Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, four Greater Scaup, three Marsh Wrens, nine Carolina Wrens and one Rusty Blackbird. There were no ‘new to the count’ species this year.
A special thanks to the NYS DEC and Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge staff who volunteered to report birds while on duty and conducted a winter raptor survey on count afternoon. Many thanks go out to everyone who participated! We rely on volunteer support every year to continue this important tradition. A list of species follows.
Celeste Morien
Count Compiler
CW = species seen in count week, but not count day
HC = High Count
| Mute Swan | 4 |
| Tundra Swan | 25 |
| Trumpeter Swan | – |
| Greater White-fronted Goose | 7 |
| Snow Goose | – |
| Ross’s Goose | – |
| Cackling Goose | 5 |
| Canada Goose | 7743 |
| Wood Duck | – |
| Gadwall | 10 |
| American Wigeon | – |
| American Black Duck | 21 |
| American Black Duck x Mallard | – |
| Domestic Mallard x Mallard | – |
| Mallard | 90 |
| Northern Shoveler | 1 |
| Northern Pintail | – |
| Blue-winged Teal | |
| Green-winged Teal | – |
| Canvasback | – |
| Redhead | – |
| Ring-necked Duck | – |
| Greater Scaup | 4 HC |
| Lesser Scaup | – |
| Bufflehead | – |
| Common Goldeneye | 4 |
| Hooded Merganser | 1 |
| Common Merganser | 13 |
| Red-breasted Merganser | – |
| Ring-necked Pheasant | |
| Ruffed Grouse | – |
| Wild Turkey | 24 |
| Common Loon | – |
| Pied-billed Grebe | – |
| Horned Grebe | – |
| American Bittern | – |
| Great Blue Heron | 2 |
| Great Egret | – |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | – |
| Bald Eagle | 24 HC |
| Northern Harrier | 14 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 2 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 8 |
| Northern Goshawk | – |
| Accipiter sp. | 1 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | – |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 78 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | |
| American Kestrel | 8 |
| Merlin | 1 |
| Peregrine Falcon | – |
| Virginia Rail | – |
| Sora | – |
| American Coot | – |
| Sandhill Crane | 2 |
| Wilson’s Snipe | – |
| Ring-billed Gull | 34 |
| Herring Gull | 21 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | – |
| Bonaparte’s Gull | – |
| Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) | 451 |
| Mourning Dove | 138 |
| Eastern Screech-Owl | 5 |
| Great Horned Owl | 1 |
| Snowy Owl | |
| Barred Owl | 1 |
| Long-eared Owl | |
| Short-eared Owl | 2 |
| Northern Saw-whet Owl | – |
| Belted Kingfisher | 4 |
| Red-headed Woodpecker | – |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 62 |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 4 HC |
| Downy Woodpecker | 105 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 29 |
| Northern Flicker | 52 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 8 |
| Eastern Phoebe | – |
| Northern Shrike | 3 |
| Blue Jay | 174 |
| American Crow | 220 |
| Common Raven | 2 |
| Horned Lark | 10 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 319 |
| Tufted Titmouse | 27 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 8 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 93 |
| Brown Creeper | 10 |
| Carolina Wren | 9 HC |
| Winter Wren | 2 |
| Marsh Wren | 3 HC |
| Wren sp. | – |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 10 |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | – |
| Eastern Bluebird | 85 HC |
| Hermit Thrush | – |
| American Robin | 259 |
| Gray Catbird | – |
| Northern Mockingbird | 3 |
| European Starling | 10464 |
| American Pipit | – |
| Cedar Waxwing | 3 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 11 |
| Common Yellowthroat | – |
| American Tree Sparrow | 70 |
| Chipping Sparrow | 1 |
| Field Sparrow | – |
| Savannah Sparrow | – |
| Song Sparrow | 13 |
| Swamp Sparrow | 1 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 50 |
| White-crowned Sparrow | |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 363 |
| Dark-eyed (Pink-sided) Junco | – |
| Lapland Longspur | |
| Snow Bunting | 3 |
| Northern Cardinal | 103 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 81 |
| Eastern Meadowlark | – |
| Yellow-headed Blackbird | – |
| Rusty Blackbird | 1 HC |
| Brewer’s Blackbird | – |
| Common Grackle | 4 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 244 |
| Pine Grosbeak | – |
| Purple Finch | – |
| House Finch | 57 |
| White-winged Crossbill | – |
| Common Redpoll | 3 |
| Pine Siskin | – |
| American Goldfinch | 172 |
| Evening Grosbeak | |
| House Sparrow | 763 |
| Blackbird sp. | 49 |
Total Species 75
Total Individuals 22,702