All text, maps, charts & photos © Hilton Pond Center

22nd ANNUAL YORK/ROCK HILL (SC)
CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT

Every winter--in cooperation with the National Audubon Society--Hilton Pond Center implements and compiles the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) for York/Rock Hill in York County, South Carolina (see map above). Christmas Bird Counts--perhaps the first big organized citizen science effort--originated 112 years ago as an alternative to traditional holiday bird hunts when folks young and old used newly gifted guns to see who could bring down the most birds. For that first CBC in 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman organized 25 counts from Toronto to Pacific Grove CA and involved 27 participants who tallied 89 combined species. That's a far cry from 2011 when 2,248 CBCs in the United States, Canada & Latin America involved more than 63,000 participants who tallied more than 60 million birds, with nearly 650 species in just the U.S.

All text, maps, charts & photos © Hilton Pond Center

We started the York/Rock Hill count in 1991 to help provide a snapshot of numbers and species of winter birds present in central York County--in the heart of the Carolina Piedmont Region. Beginning before sunrise and finishing at dusk, participants identify and tally birds seen and/or heard in an area inscribed by a standard circle 15 miles in diameter (see map above) and centered where Tools Fork Creek flows beneath SC Hwy 5 (West Main Street) just west of Northwestern High School. (Count-center coordinates are 34° 57' 23.57" N, 81º 06' 24.64" W; in decimal degrees that's N34.956547, W81.106844.) The count circle includes all of Hilton Pond Center. Participants are assigned one or more of the circle's 11 sectors and are expected to spend the day covering the area(s) by car and on foot--perhaps even by canoe or bicycle! This year our York/Rock Hill CBC--normally held the Saturday before Christmas--was on 22 December.

Right off the bat the York/Rock Hill 2012 count was a bit different from all but one of the 21 that preceded it, if only because there were just two participants to start; count founder/compiler Bill Hilton Jr.(all 22 years) and long-time veteran Bob Olson (15 years) were the ONLY folks to arrive by 6:15 a.m. at the SC 5 Burger King in Rock Hill. The compiler had heard from a half-dozen other regulars who promised they would be there but when no one else showed Bob and Bill headed out for their respective sectors to see what they could see. (Weather conditions at 6:30 a.m. included clear skies, no wind, a temperature of 27 degrees F, and no frozen water.)

Needless to say, covering the count circle's 177 square miles with two people is not likely to generate a highly accurate survey of numbers and kinds of birds present. Nonetheless, the two dedicated birders did the best they could and were pleased upon their return to the restaurant at midday to find Jean Dilworth had driven over from Waxhaw NC to help in the afternoon. We were happy to meet Jean--who retired and moved south from Illinois--especially because she was new to the area and had never been part of any Christmas Bird Count.

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The morning started off rather slow and never really got moving with big numbers of birds. Thanks to a late afternoon visit to one of the Lake Wylie public boat landings, however, Bonaparte's Gull (above) became the most common species for 2012--nearly all of them floating as a large raft in which they undoubtedly would spend the night; 720 individual Bonaparte's set a new record high for this species for the York/Rock Hill count. The only other species with more than a hundred sightings this year was Turkey Vultures (163)--the bulk of which were in a large kettle over the gulls on the lake and undoubtedly getting ready to glide to a nearby night roost.

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Two species tied their all-time highs for the count, although those numbers weren't very big: Cooper's Hawk (two seen), Red-breasted Nuthatch (one). Another 13 species tied or exceeded their 22-year average: Brown Creeper (one seen), Bonaparte's Gull (720), Killdeer (35), Eastern Meadowlark (45), Brown-headed Nuthatch (6), White-breasted Nuthatch (1), Loggerhead Shrike (1, above), Wilson's Snipe (1, below), House Sparrow (27), Brown Thrasher (4), Eastern Towhee (22), Turkey Vulture (163), and Downy Woodpecker (7).

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Three dependable species--Pied-billed Grebe, Red-shouldered Hawk, and American Kestrel--had been observed in all 21 previous counts but failed to appear in 2012. This leaves just 27 species tallied on every York/Rock Hill CBC to date. Also noticeable in their absence were several sparrow species (see chart below), ALL the various blackbirds, and all waterfowl except for Mallards (25 seen). Cedar Waxwings that have been plentiful all winter in the Carolina Piedmont seemed to have disappeared on count day.

All text, maps, charts & photos © Hilton Pond Center

We were disappointed to see no Red-headed or Pileated Woodpeckers this year, although two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (male above) brightened the day. We have no idea where the usual glut of Yellow-rumped Warblers is hanging out this winter--only one was recorded on the 2012 count--and we observed only one Pine Warbler (male, below right). Usually vociferous Barred Owls also failed to hoot during our pre-dawn and post-sunset observation times although they were seen during count week, as were Southern Bald Eagles we have encountered during recent counts--just below the dam at Rock Hill.

The 54 species seen in 2012 was well below the York/Rock Hill all-time high of 80 set back in 2000 and was less than the 22-year average of 64.8. This year's tally of 1,973 individual birds also was dwarfed by both the the all-time high of 12,945 from 1994 and the 22-year average (4,848). Low species and individual counts resulted, in part, from the small number of observers, but it's also worth mentioning that several former prime habitats within the count circle are now under asphalt and brick and not likely to yield many birds now or in the future.

The count compiler always starts his day within the York Sector of the York/Rock Hill Christmas Bird Count circle and was delighted this year to tabulate 28 species on Hilton Pond Center's 11-acre tract--including solitary Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches at our sunflower seed feeders. That meant more than half the 54 species tabulated for this year's entire count were present around Hilton Pond that day--not bad for a "yard list" in mid-December.

Please mark your calendar and join us on 21 December 2013 for the upcoming 23rd annual York/Rock Hill Christmas Bird Count to help us get a better census of avifauna in central York County, South Carolina.

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POSTSCRIPT: After we had tabulated official results of the York/Rock Hill CBC we heard from Charles Payne that he and two buddies had gone birding on count day within the prescribed 15-mile-diameter circle. Charles recorded two birds--the usually elusive Hairy Woodpecker and a winter-scarce Gray Catbird--that would bring the count total to 56 species.

All text, maps, charts & photos © Hilton Pond Center

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