26th ANNUAL YORK/ROCK HILL (SC)
CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT

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

Each winter--in cooperation with the National Audubon Society--Hilton Pond Center implements and compiles a 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 116 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, and Latin America involved more than 63,000 participants who tallied more than 60 million birds, with nearly 650 species in the U.S. alone!

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)--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.)

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

The count circle includes all of Hilton Pond Center (above), as well as a mix of urban/suburban/rural habitats and large sections of southern Lake Wylie on the Catawba River. Participants are assigned one or more of the circle's 11 sectors and are expected to spend all (or part of) the day covering one or more area(s) by car and on foot--perhaps even by canoe or bicycle! This year our 26th annual York/Rock Hill CBC--typically held the Saturday before Christmas if weather allows--was implemented on 17 December.

We had advance commitments from four participants, all of whom did show up for at least part of the day: Third-time counter Tom Anderson; long-time veteran Bob Olson (our second-most-faithful counter with 19 years); first-timer Lauren Mobley (who had to leave mid-morning to open her Wild Birds Unlimited store in Rock Hill); and founder/compiler Bill Hilton Jr. (all 26 counts).

Our 2016 count started out as a true anomaly. Weather predictions the evening before indicated overnight lows would be at or near freezing, with light precipitation leading to a glaze of ice on roads and power lines. Since we normally start the York/Rock Hill count period at 6:30 a.m., we knew there was a chance for dangerous black ice conditions on local byways before first light; thus, Friday evening we sent word we'd operate the next morning on a two-hour delay. We also suggested participants start birding their own yards on foot at dawn; this turned out to be very fortuitous, with Bob Olson reporting not one but two migratory Brown Creepers in his neighborhood (file photo above right). We've had this infrequently seen species on just ten of 26 counts.

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

By the time participants gathered at 8:30 a.m. pavement was essentially clear, in part because highway crews had spread brine on many roads the day before. However, low temperatures still a few degrees below freezing combined with high humidity meant we started out in a heavy fog that never really cleared until dusk--the first time we can remember witnessing an all-day mid-winter fog across York County SC. Amid the gloominess (above), our still-optimistic and energetic birders split into two parties and drove off to their assigned sectors.

At socked-in Lake Wylie--typically an important locale for sighting water birds and other species--observers could barely make out flocks of gulls, waders, and the like. Very few birds were out and about in the cool, damp air. (They may have been in the treetops, but we certainly couldn't see them 'way up there!) The weather also wasn't very amenable to good photography, so we regret we weren't able to include herein very many decent images of birds seen during count day.

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

Fortunately, the feeders at Hilton Pond Center were active; there we tallied a respectable 23 species in 45 minutes of mid-morning observation. Despite this variety, however, there were very few total birds. A hoped-for migratory Red-breasted Nuthatch spotted a day earlier at the Center never appeared, meaning we could only list it for "count week" and not the count itself. A male White-breasted Nuthatch (above) did pose long enough for a photo after grabbing some suet outside the kitchen window; this species tied a record of three for the most seen on a York/Rock Hill count. Lauren Mobley did get the increasingly uncommon Brown-headed Nuthatch in her Rock Hill neighborhood and called in to report 14 House Sparrows at her Wild Birds Unlimited store when she opened at mid-morning. (For some reason, a second non-native species--Rock Dove--was not at the usual Farmers Exchange feed store hangout, so we missed them entirely this year.)

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

As might be expected, "big birds" were not flying in the fog and for the first time in 26 years we did not record a single Turkey Vulture; only 18 of the increasingly more common Black Vultures appeared. True raptors were equally hard to come by. Those we did find were typically hunkered down on perches, including a pair of Red-tailed Hawks on an electrical tower, a solitary male American Kestrel on a power pole, and a soggy Red-shouldered Hawk on a wire (above). (We can thank Duke Power and York Electric Coop for provided places for these birds to sit in the fog!) The nicely plumaged (and apparently citified) red-shouldered adult sat damply and nearly motionless for a long time on the line above Rey Azteca Restaurant in York, allowing close enough access for several exposures. And lest you think we whited-out the background in our photo just above, that's actually how the foggy sky looked the whole live-long day!

Two Bald Eagles spotted near the dam at Rock Hill appeared less concerned about the weather, but despite attempts before dawn and after dark, observers were unable to hear or see any owl species that might be expected on our annual Christmas Bird Count.

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

Once again this year we had a near-absence of winter finches, with just 16 House Finches--15 of those at Hilton Pond feeders where we also saw just one American Goldfinch and one Purple Finch. (The photo above shows two House Finches, a Carolina Chickadee, and an American Goldfinch. We're still waiting on the season's first Pine Siskins, but it's possible they won't come down this winter.) In a disturbing trend, various sparrow species have begun to decline or have disappeared completely from local habitats where they once were relatively plentiful. This year, for example, we saw no Field, Savannah, or Swamp Sparrows--much less the less common Fox, Lincoln's, Vesper, or White-crowned Sparrows. We did tally 38 White-throated Sparrows at various sites, but our only three Chipping Sparrows were at the feeders at Hilton Pond. Dark-eyed Juncos were also present in low numbers with just 13 seen; the 26-year average for this species is 81.

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

As often happens, competition for most abundant species was between Canada Geese and Bonaparte's Gulls (the latter in winter plumage, above). Gulls won out this year 208 to 110. American Robins and European Starlings were next at 80 each, but we never came across one of those big nomadic winter flocks of miscellaneous blackbirds or robins that in some past years have made our overall count numbers skyrocket.

In all the four bird counters saw 46 species by lunchtime--fewer than half the 110 we've observed at least once during our previous 25 years of York/Rock Hill Christmas counting. We added six species in the afternoon to end with 52 for the day. This was: Ten less than last year; below our 26-year-average of 64; and nowhere near our record of 80 set back in 2000.

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

Of 52 species seen during our 2016 foray, 24 have appeared on every count since we began in 1991--including the Great Blue Heron (above) photographed in the shallows of Hilton Pond during this year's count. Despite overall low numbers, 10 species equaled or slightly surpassed their 26-year average (see Table 1 below), but none set new record highs in 2016. NOT appearing for the first time in 26 years were Turkey Vulture and Eastern Phoebe. Also missing were any of those western vagrant hummers such as Rufous Hummingbirds that have appeared for a few past counts.

The final count of individual birds was a lowly 1,282--just 22 more than last year and only about a fourth of our 26-year average of 4,356. The fog undoubtedly kept numbers down, but despite their hard work it didn't help having only four observers covering the entire 15-mile diameter circle. Even so, the biggest impact on declining bird populations in York County appears to be an ever-decreasing amount of habitat as commercial and residential development have expanded dramatically--sometimes catastrophically--during the past 26 years.

Please take time to peruse Table 1 below for a full accounting of the official results from our 2016 survey. Then mark your calendar and join friends of Hilton Pond Center for the 27th annual York/Rock Hill Christmas Bird Count scheduled for Saturday, 23 December 2017. (This will be almost a week later than in 2016, which could make for better results as more winter migrants have time to come down from up north.) No experience necessary--just binoculars and a desire to help get a more complete census of avifauna in central York County, South Carolina.

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

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1432 DeVinney Road
York SC 29745

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