New species turn up in annual bird count
Warm, wet weather and some unfamiliar bird species were again in evidence for Jan. 1’s annual Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania's South Butler Christmas Bird Count.
The bird count was conducted within a 15-mile circular area centered around Mars and running west to Zelienople, south to Cranberry Township, east to the Route 228 corridor and north to Connoquenessing Township.
“We started at 6 a.m. and finished at dusk,” Kubiak said. The field counters gathered at the society’s Succop Nature Park, 185 Airport Road, Penn Township, at 8 a.m. on Jan. 1 before heading out into the county.
Chris Kubiak, director of education for the society and compiler of the bird count statistics, didn’t have final numbers compiled last week before he left for an eco-tour in Costa Rica. But he said, according to preliminary figures, “We had 37 counters in the field and 44 at the feeder counts”
“Right now, the count is about 90% done,” Kubiak said last week. “We still have feeder counts coming in.”
Kubiak said the number of bird species sighted was 56, and the number of individual birds were put at between 7,000 and 8,000, compared with 2020’s tally of 57 species and 5,664 individual birds.
“We had some first-time sightings. We still have to confirm it, but we had a sighting of a long-eared owl for the first time. That’s a rare species and a rare bird,” he said.
Another first-time visitor to Butler County, Kuibiak noted, was the tundra swan. The tundra swan’s habitat, he noted, “is normally south of us, but for some reason they are sticking around.”
Another fresh, feathered face spotted during the bird count was the gadwall duck. Gadwall ducks have increased in numbers since the 1980s, partly because of conservation of wetlands and adjacent uplands in their breeding habitat.
“Still, that’s not one that you would expect” to turn up on the Butler County bird count, said Kubiak.
He added the merlin, a type of falcon, has again been spotted in increasing numbers.
“It’s a bird that has been returning from its lows due to DDT. We’ve found more in the count circle,” Kubiak said.
However, some species’ numbers continue to decline in the most recent count.
Both cedar waxwings and robins’ numbers “are substantially down from years past,” according to Kubiak.
Two other rapidly dwindling bird species in the county, as revealed by the count, were the dark-eyed juncos and the American tree sparrow.
“It seems to be a combination of climate change and thinning habitat associated with that,” said Kubiak.
The staff of the Jennings Environmental Education Center, 2951 Prospect Road, in Brady Township conducted its own bird count for the Bartramian Audubon Society Dec. 17.
“The staff watched the feeders, and a Bartramian member was out in the park collecting data,” said Kati Edmiston, an environmental education specialist at Jennings. “We did it all day for about six hours.”
Edmiston said the staff made note of 17 species that visited the Jennings feeders, including five species of woodpeckers, blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches, tufted titmice, brown creepers, American gold finches and mourning doves.
The annual bird counts are important to help assess the state of the environment, said Edmiston.
“It provides very crucial information to the Audubon Society,” she said. “It gives information on population, migration patterns, the health of the birds.”
