Posted by Robin Diaz on December 19, 2018 at 15:52:09
The 19th Long Pine Key CBC was conducted on Monday, December 17. As always with this count, we had a grand time, with lots of great birds tallied. In fact, thanks to Larry, we may have an extraordinary Count Week bird! Conditions this year were 180 degrees different from 2017, but with the same number of species, 119. Very wet conditions last year produced ducks and numerous rails, while we were strong on passerines this year. We tallied 95 King Rails in 2017 and only 1 this year! We had 17 warbler species both years and a Blue-winged Warbler was added as a first on Monday. We had 6 sparrow species and the Brown-headed Nuthatch population seems stable. For the third year, we could not pull out an Eastern Bluebird. The usual Brown-crested Flycatcher was a no-show this year but a Western Kingbird was found in the restoration area. Wood Stork and Roseate Spoonbill numbers were strong but I'm not sure how this relates to their nesting success this year. Common Yellowthroats are loving the conditions in ENP and we counted 727, almost double the number of Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warblers. Just as we were given the OK for undocumented Louisiana Waterthrush, we didn't see one for the first time in years. Such is birding! A huge shout-out of THANKS goes to the incredible participants of this great CBC. Elsa, we missed you!