Today a few of us from the Cattaraugus County Bird Club participated in the NYS DEC / NYSOA annual waterfowl survey. Each January a quarter of a million ducks across New York State are counted by bird clubs, state officials and your average birder. In years past we had participate in the Mid-winter Bald Eagle Survey, where we would help locate Eagles wintering along the Allegheny River (while also looking for waterfowl) . . . . But for some reason these dates did not overlap as they had previously. The results of this survey will help determine the long-term monitoring of waterfowl within New York State during the winter months.
Common Goldeneye in the Snow
We observed a total of 26 species of birds with my highlights of the day being 23 Common Goldeneyes, a Northern Shrike and 79 Wild Turkeys.
Northern Shrike
|
|
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
|
Bald Eagle |
8 |
1 |
6 |
3 |
|
Pied-billed Grebe |
- |
- |
1 |
3 |
|
Canada Goose |
125 |
185 |
223 |
77 |
|
Mallard |
89 |
96 |
99 |
103 |
|
Black Duck |
7 |
3 |
5 |
53 |
|
Common Merganser |
26 |
46 |
41 |
49 |
|
Hooded Merganser |
2 |
3 |
9 |
12 |
|
Bufflehead |
2 |
- |
- |
4 |
|
Common Goldeneye |
- |
1 |
- |
23 |
|
Long-tailed Duck |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
|
Total |
259 |
336 |
384 |
327 |
