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American Pipit High Count



The recent thread about Lapland Longspur high counts
reminded me of something I neglected to post a few
weeks ago.

On the day it snowed all up and down the Carolina
coasts (Thursday Jan. 23rd), Burton Moore and I went
to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island to look for
Alcids and Gulls.  There is a deep hole (famous for
Black Drum fishing) between that part of Sullivan's
and the Charleston harbor jetties.  Dennis Forsythe
reminded me of the spot's attraction for alcids when I
picked his brains the night before.

While Burton and I didn't find any Dovekies,
Razorbills and the like, we did encounter something
amazing.

At about 3pm, we began seeing an aerial river of
Pipits flying south.  The swarm began at 2-3 feet
above the land/water and extended to between 20 and 30
feet above the water.  The birds were funneling over
the lip of the lawn area of Ft. Moultrie, crossing the
beach and heading off toward Morris Island  (on the
south side of Charleston Harbor).  The flock's density
varied a bit from minute to minute, but the river of
birds stayed consistently thick.  We very
conservatively estimated the number of passing birds
to be 200-300 birds per minute.  We kept repeatedly
blocking off tens, fifties and hundreds and reducing
the count so as to safely under estimate the true
numbers.  The bird flow continued unabated until
around 3:50, when it began to finally taper.   By 4pm,
only a few birds here and there were present.  So
assuming an average flow of 250 BPM for 50 minutes, we
estimated 12,000+ birds (probably many more in
reality).  I didn't realize this was the high count
for S.C. until I was chatting with Will Post the other
day.   I later checked "Status and Distribution of
South Carolina Birds" and found the previous high
count was 3,000 birds on a Santee NWR Christmas Bird
Count.

While the flow was in effect, a few hundred Pipits
paused on the fort's lawn and on the high part of the
beach.  They were feeding, resting, chasing one
another and generally running around.   We scanned the
birds on the ground for Sprague's Pipit but did not
spot any.  

At certain points, we were afraid of getting hit by
flying birds and we could have reached out and swatted
them they were flying so close to us.   If American
Pipit's flight calls weren't burned into my memory
before, they certainly are now!  

That afternoon we also saw significant numbers of
Yellow-rumped Warblers and Palm Warblers heading south
in the same flight path.

Nathan Dias - Charleston, SC.



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