28th 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 118 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 of live birds from Toronto to Pacific Grove CA and involved 27 participants who tallied 89 combined species. That's a far cry from 2017 when 2,536 CBCs in the United States, Canada, and Latin America involved 73,153 participants who tallied more than 56 million birds, with 641 species in the U.S. alone!

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

Hilton Pond Center started the York/Rock Hill count in 1991 to help provide a snapshot of numbers and species of early-winter birds present in central York County--in the heart of the Carolina Piedmont Region. Beginning before sunrise and finishing after 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 the new bridge on 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 28th annual York/Rock Hill CBC--typically held the Saturday before Christmas if weather allows--was conducted on 22 December 2018.

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

The 2018 count began at 6:15 a.m. when the group gathered as always in Rock Hill near the center of the count circle. Present were compiler Bill Hilton Jr. (who has participated one way or another on all 28 York/Rock Hill counts); Bob Olson--a 21-year participant who worked his binoculars left-handed this year because of shoulder surgery--and five-year veteran Tom Anderson. Also on hand were newcomers Dave McAvoy and Cheryl & Marcus Morris. In all we had six people in four parties in the field.

Several participants live within the count circle, so after gathering for instructions they headed back home to start the day counting early birds at their feeders. Just before dawn everyone was treated to the sight of a brilliant full moon (above) in a perfectly clear sky. The morning was chilly but pleasant at 39°, with light southwesterly winds--a nice change after several days of dreary, rainy weather that saturated the ground and made some of our usual birding haunts inaccessible.

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

After a pleasant morning in the field the participants assembled again in Rock Hill at lunchtime to make a preliminary analysis and to determine if various areas within the count circle needed to be visited--or re-visited. With a morning total of just 52 species it was apparent we needed to hit the bushes a little harder during the afternoon--especially to find several sparrow species we were missing. (We did observe good numbers of winter migrant White-throated Sparrows, above, during the morning hours.)

Most count participants reconvened one more time at 4:30 p.m. to turn in record forms, with folks heading back home for one more look at birds coming to feeders before darkness descended. That evening compiler Hilton collated all the tally sheets and began the annual process of confirming how many species and individual birds had been observed during the count day.

In all, our six participants reported a disappointing 55 species, below the 28-year average of 59 and not even close to the record high of 80 set back in 2000. Individual birds were also few and far between, with the 1,582 seen being much less than our average of 4,368.

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

As shown on the comprehensive list at the end of this write-up, Northern Flickers (above) were a bright spot, with a new high of 33 eclipsing the old record of 27. Red-tailed Hawks (see photo below) came in at 23, tying the old record from the count's first year (1991). In all, 21 species were counted in numbers equal to or above the 28-year average. Worth noting was a big comeback for Eastern Towhees and Northern Cardinals, two so-called "common" species that had been declining in recent years.

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

Many commonly reported species were missing, including ALL the waterfowl except Mallards! With as much rain as we've had in the Carolina Piedmont this fall and early winter one might expect ducks would be present in record numbers on local ponds and lakes. (Scott Cronk, an outdoorsman friend from Ashe County NC, suggests that puddle ducks may be avoiding open bodies of water, prefering to hang out in this year's abundant flooded timber areas where they are much harder to spot. "They likely prefer the cover of the woods if available.")

Also absent from this year's count were several of the sparrows and the usually reliable Cooper's Hawks, Belted Kingfishers, and Brown Thrashers, among others; even Rock Doves and House Sparrows did not appear. Since this was expected to be a "finch winter" due to failed wild seed crops in Canada, we had anticipated big numbers of Purple Finches and Pine Siskins for the Christmas Bird Count, and maybe even seldom-seen Red-breasted Nuthatches and Evening Grosbeaks. All these were absent except for a paltry four Purple Finches (below), and we never saw any of those huge flocks of blackbirds or American Robins that sometimes swell our numbers.

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

Our low tallies of bird species and individuals in December 2018 were not the fault of those enthusiastic observers who helped with the count. The biggest impact on diminishing bird populations in York County appears to be an ever-decreasing amount of natural habitat as commercial and residential development have expanded dramatically--sometimes catastrophically--during the past 28 years. Not only are woodland birds decreasing as local forests are clear cut, York County is also losing grassland and shrub land species such as sparrows when farms are abandoned or turned into subdivisions. One of the valuable--but sad--functions of our on-going York/Rock Hill (SC) Christmas Bird Count has been to document such changes.

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

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

Perhaps the most unusual sighting during the York/Rock Hill Christmas Bird Count wasn't a bird at all, but a North American River Otter, Lontra canadensis. It was first observed from a distance (above) by compiler Bill Hilton Jr. shortly after sunrise on the dock at Hilton Pond. We last had otters at the Center in about 1996 when a trio of youngsters moved in and decimated the local Muskrat population; those particular otters eventually disappeared. The one on the dock this year on 22 December was obviously a full-grown adult that nose to tail was about as long as the width of the three-foot-wide pier.

After taking a couple of quick photos from the farmhouse with a telephoto lens that was too short, Hilton mounted a longer lens on the camera and made an effort to sneak closer. As he followed a trail toward the pond, he could see through the trees the otter was alternately grooming its fur and nibbling on a good-sized panfish, undoubtedly one of its favorite foods.

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

Getting closer, Hilton observed the long, laterally flattened tail that helps guide this giant aquatic weasel through the water. The bewhiskered otter seemed unaware of his presence, but when Hilton was finally close enough for one more hurried photo in the blue-tinted shadows (see above) the otter slid off the side of the dock and disappeared into the darkness of Hilton Pond.

After all the rain we've had for the past month or so, the pond has been full past capacity. It may be such added depth made the impoundment a more welcome spot for this large aquatic animal.

No one knows how long the otter will stay, but if it's here for the winter the local fish population almost certainly will drop. A River Otter's fish-catching ability coupled with its ravenous appetite will make short work of any sizable Bluegills or Largemouth Bass lurking in the depths. That's all okay by us. This otter got here on its own via natural means, so we're not about to interfere with the natural occurrence of a seldom-seen native mammal--especially since North American River Otters have declined drastically across their range due to over-trapping and habitat loss.

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

Please take time to peruse Table 1 below for a full accounting of the official results from our 2018 early winter bird survey. Then mark your calendar and join friends of Hilton Pond Center for the 29th annual York/Rock Hill Christmas Bird Count scheduled for Saturday, 21 December 2019. No experience necessary--just binoculars and a desire to help get a more complete census of avifauna in central York County, South Carolina. If you'd like to participate or have questions about the most recent or other past counts, please contact the compiler at RESEARCH.

A fourth-year male Ruby-throated Hummingbird (above) recaptured in 2017
after having been banded locally as an immature in 2014; he was likely present
but not encountered locally in either 2015 or 2016.

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

6,000 RUBY-THROATS,
AND COUNTING

To celebrate the banding of our 6,000th Ruby-throated Hummingbird (color-marked immature male, above) during the past 35 years of research, Hilton Pond Center is undertaking a fund-raising effort in support of "Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project." Our goal from now through the end of 2018 is to raise ONE DOLLAR for each of the 6,193 hummers banded locally through since 1984.

If you'd like to support our on-going study of hummingbird migration, site fidelity, longevity, and population dynamics here in the U.S. and in Central America, please click on one of the links below to send a tax-deductible donation. (You can also donate through our Facebook fundraising page.)

Payable via credit card

Checks also can be sent to Hilton Pond Center at:
1432 DeVinney Road
York SC 29745

All contributions are tax-deductible on your
current-year income tax form

Don't forget to scroll down for Nature Notes & Photos,
plus lists of all birds banded or recaptured during the period.