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Breeding Bird Survey - Newberry county, SC
- To: "" <carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu>
- Subject: Breeding Bird Survey - Newberry county, SC
- From: Donna Slyce Bailey <dsbailey@conterra.com>
- Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 13:09:34 -0400
- Delivered-to: pardo@metalab.unc.edu
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
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Given the somewhat slow, lackluster migration season, it wasn?t with high hopes
that I departed from Lexington county at 4:15 AM on Sunday morning to work the
first of my Breeding Bird Surveys routes in Newberry county, a route that
begins in southern Newberry county, winds through the town of Little Mountain
and ends in extreme northern Lexington county. I arrived at the unremarkable
designated spot near the top of Lake Murray on time and heard the first birds I
usually hear, a nearby Purple Martin colony chirting their dawnsong, right on
time and as expected. But from that point on, little was as expected.
It was one of the noisiest mornings I have ever worked a BBS. It seemed that
every bird present was singing, calling, or chipping. The list of species for
which I recorded what seems to me to be high numbers of individuals includes
Brown Thrasher, House Finch, Grasshopper Sparrow, Northern Bobwhite, Yellow-
breasted Chat, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Eastern Wood-pewee, Wild Turkey, Ruby-
throated Hummingbird, Acadian Flycatcher, Blue Grosbeak. I heard Wild Turkey
calling at three stops, highly unusual given my previous experience on this
route. I heard the Bobwhite and the Yellow-breasted Chat at their usual stop ?
and several other stops before and after the usual stop as well. In some cases
I recorded more birds than usual but the increase is small. I usually record
one Louisiana Waterthrush and one Hooded Warbler on this route. This year I
encountered a vocal battle between two male Louisiana Waterthrushes in one of
the creekbottom stops along the route and was surprised to hear a Hooded
Warbler calling at a stop where I had not previously detected them as well as
the usual stop. The species for which I seemed to record low numbers were Red-
eyed Vireo, Summer Tanager, Chipping Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark. Usually, the
power lines around some pastures on the route are loaded with Eastern
Meadowlarks. While I recorded good numbers of Meadowlark this year, the
numbers are not as high as usual. Among the least surprising events on the
route this year was the most surprising bird when I first worked the route.
Though I missed him last year, this year I found the Worm-eating Warbler at the
usual stop.
Three species were new to this route this year and one will be reported as a
migrant. Among the breeders new to the route this year are Blue-headed Vireo
and Red-tailed Hawk. The Red-tailed Hawk was dining on a dead opossum in the
road as I drove slowly by. The migrant was so surprising that I suspended the
count for a few moments to verify the identity of the singer ? a Rose-breasted
Grosbeak.
The fun mammal for this BBS was Eastern Cottontail. I found several pairs of
the rabbits performing their courtship (or is it territorial?) dances in the
road ? the ?leapfrog? jumping over each other.
If anyone would like directions to any of these birds, please contact me off-
list.
Donna Slyce Bailey
Lexington, SC
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