For the Little Rock CBC held on December 19, 22 field birders and 10 feederwatchers (with overlap between the two) tallied 16,309 birds of 98 species over a collective 65 hours and 240 miles. We had more individuals and species than last year, and the rain was not as bad as forecasted. Besides a returning Rufous Hummingbird, other notable birds were 1 Ross’s Goose (5th record), 1 Red-breasted Merganser (3rd), 4 Wild Turkeys (7th), and 1 Osprey (6th).
For the Lonoke CBC held December 27, 14 volunteers tallied 228,008 birds (over 3x as many as last year) of a phenomenal 110 species over a collective 56 hours and 215 miles. We tallied high counts for Snow Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose, and Long-billed Dowitcher. The most notable species was an American Bittern found by Ed Laster and Ann Honeycutt, the 4th for the count and the first one since 1956! Other notable species were 4 Cackling Geese (10th record), 1 Virginia Rail (10th), 2 Sora (8th), 1 Sandhill Crane (2nd), 2 American Avocets (3rd), 1 Gray Catbird (4th) and 5 Palm Warblers (6th and a high count). Quite the lineup!
Covid-19 and reduced participation sure didn’t hurt the results. Thanks to all volunteers for your help in this season’s counts! Join us again next season.
Dan Scheiman
Compiler