The 125th Christmas Bird Count in Virginia – Washington DC

Fifty-four Christmas Fowl Counts (CBCs) had been performed in Virginia for the 2024-2025 season. The overall variety of species tallied on the 2024-2025 counts was 212 which is just under the 2023-2024 season whole of 213. However the whole variety of people was 919,005 which is considerably increased than the 2023-2024 season whole of 752,144.

There have been a couple of compiler modifications in 2024-2025. Robert Ake turned over compilation duties to Dave Youker for the Nansemond River CBC. Terrell Worrell took over compilation duties from Ashley Studholme for the Nokesville CBC. Joette Borzik is the brand new compiler changing Roberta Kellam on the Nassawadox CBC. Jim Corliss handed on the job of compiling the Williamsburg CBC to Shirley Devan.

The one rely setting a file for Complete Variety of Species was Martinsville with 64. Dragon Run logged 7,816 species and Highland County noticed 9,716 species that are new excessive Complete Variety of Particular person birds for these two CBCs. The Plains CBC set a brand new file for the Variety of Observers this 12 months with 66.

A number of gull sightings had been notable:

• 68,286 Ring-billed Gulls are encouraging as their numbers have been lower than 50,000 for the final 4 years
• 10,737 Herring Gulls are essentially the most seen since 10,226 had been noticed ten years in the past, in 2015
• 630 Lesser Black-backed Gulls is a brand new Excessive Depend that’s nearly double the earlier excessive of 332 set in 2021; these native CBC excessive counts contributed: 7 Cape Charles & 496 Again Bay
• 1,860 Nice Black-backed Gulls is essentially the most reported in nearly ten years, since 2,029 in 2016
• A single Black-headed Gull was counted at Little Creek; one was final seen on the Hopewell CBC in 2021
• 3 Iceland Gulls had been discovered on these CBCs: 1 Washington DC, 1 Brooke & 1 Central Loudoun

Six wintering Ruby-throated Hummingbirds set a brand new Excessive Depend for the state: 1 Nassawadox, 3 Little Creek, 1 Again Bay, and 1 Newport Information plus 1 Depend Week in Cape Charles. Different wintering hummingbirds had been: two Rufous Hummingbirds (1 Charlottesville and Rappahannock), a Rufous/Allen’s Hummingbird in Williamsburg and one that would solely be recognized as selasphorus sp. on The Plains rely.

Some woodpecker numbers had been down however a file excessive rely was established for one:

• 3,722 Pink-bellied Woodpeckers is the bottom quantity since 3,454 had been seen in 2016
• 2,870 Downy Woodpeckers is the bottom quantity noticed since 2,215 had been recorded in 2018
• 1.137 Piliated Woodpeckers is the bottom since 1,007 in 2018
• However 707 Bushy Woodpeckers is a file Excessive Depend (besting the previous file from 2022 of 668)

It was stunning to see low numbers for these frequent species:

• 51 Home Wrens is the fewest seen since 44 in 2015
• 6,991 Carolina Wrens is the bottom since 6,106 in 2018
• 782 Jap Towhees is the bottom quantity discovered since 616 in 2009

However these frequent species had notable excessive counts:

•  25,257 Darkish-eyed Juncos is the very best since 25,704 in 2014
• 29,709 White-throated Sparrows is the very best because the file excessive rely of 30,926 in 2020
• 59 Baltimore Orioles is a brand new excessive rely with these native CBC excessive counts: 23 Williamsburg, 1 Northumberland-Lancaster (the place it was a brand new species), 1 Washington’s Birthplace, 2 Sandy River Reservoir & 2 Blacksburg
• 5,255 Home Finches is the very best since 5,676 in 2007, however solely one-third of the all-time excessive rely of 17,078 set in 1993

Listed below are another excessive counts of curiosity:

• Inexperienced-winged Teal numbers rebounded as 3,731 is essentially the most seen within the final 5 years
• 2,591 Canvasbacks was a stunning enhance after solely 398 had been detected on 2023 CBCs
• 1,869 Black Scoters had been encouraging as fewer than 100 had been found on the earlier two years CBCs
• 35 Northern Bobwhites are up from solely 11 in 2023 and three in 2022
• 1,287 Wild Turkeys are essentially the most seen in over 5 years since 1,607 in 2019
• 19,146 Double-crested Cormorants are a file Excessive Depend
• 28 Cattle Egrets is the very best quantity since 34 had been noticed in 1992 and none had been situated in most of the years in between
• Annual new Excessive Counts proceed to be set for the fourth 12 months in a row for the Bald Eagle with 1,919 discovered on the 2024 CBCs. Many native CBCs contributed with these file Excessive Counts: 69 Nassawadox, 26 Little Creek, 68 Newport Information, 123 Williamsburg, 96 Dragon Run, 56 Center Peninsula, 18 Chancellorsville, 19 Lake Anna, 46 Calmes Neck, 13 Glade Spring, 2 Cedars Protect-Jonesville (the place it was a brand new species)
• 1,104 Pink-shouldered Hawks is a file Excessive Depend
• 2,439 Killdeer are essentially the most seen since 2,608 in 2009
• 1,521 Willits are a file Excessive Depend
• 59 Whimbrels is a file Excessive Depend breaking final 12 months’s file of 38; nearly all of these had been from the file Excessive Depend of 43 recognized on the Nassawadox CBC
• 599 American Kestrels is the very best since 870 had been present in 2002
• 65 Merlins is a file Excessive Depend breaking final 12 months’s file of 48
• 676 Jap Phoebes is a brand new Excessive Depend additionally breaking final 12 months’s file of 610; a number of native CBCs had new Excessive Counts that contributed: 15 Little Creek, 24 Again Bay, 36 Williamsburg, 15 Dragon Run, 21 Center Peninsula, 19 Northumberland-Lancaster, 23 Fort Belvoir, 17 Central Loudoun, 29 Sandy River Reservoir, 4 Martinsville, 7 Calmes Neck, 19 Rappahannock, 10 Rockingham County & 4 Highland County
• 2,039 Golden-crowned Kinglets is encouraging as their numbers have been low for a couple of years; that is the very best since 1,991 had been seen in 2017 however lower than half their file excessive rely of 4,258 in 1990
• 328 Brown Thrashers is new Excessive Depend
• 81 Orange-crowned Warblers is a brand new Excessive Depend that features these native Excessive Counts: 11 Little Creek, 20 Again Bay, 9 Newport Information, 1 Northumberland-Lancaster (the place this was a brand new species) & 8 Washington DC
• 26 Widespread Yellowthroats is essentially the most reported because the identical quantity in 2005 however that isn’t near the file excessive rely of 149 in 1972
• 123 Nelson’s Sparrows is the primary quantity over 100 because the file excessive rely of 147 was set in 2020
• 542 Fox Sparrows is essentially the most noticed because the file excessive rely of 921 in 2010
• 115,282 Pink-winged Blackbirds is memorable as that is the primary time the quantity has climbed above 100,000 in over ten years when 188,136 had been seen in 2011

After which there are all the time some species with low numbers:

• 89 Redheads, that is the second 12 months in a row that fewer than 100 had been logged
• Numbers had been surprisingly low for each loon species because the 67 Pink-throated Loons is the bottom since 60 had been tallied in 1975 and the 296 Widespread Loons are the bottom since 185 had been recorded in 1981
• Solely 233 Northern Gannets had been reported which is the fewest since 204 in 2010
• 88 American Woodcocks are the least detected since 69 in 2009
• 3 Loggerhead Shrikes is the bottom quantity seen in over eighty years when solely 2 had been situated in 1942; this 12 months’s shrikes had been on these CBCs: 1 Tazewell & 2 Blackford

Some species are fascinating as they’re sudden or not discovered yearly:

• The one Eurasian Wigeon occurred on the Again Bay rely
• A Depend Week Pink-necked Grebe on the Cape Charles CBC was the one one detected this 12 months
• 2 Widespread Gallinules had been on the Cape Charles CBC; the final CBC report was in 2020
• 4 Sandhill Cranes had been photographed in flight on The Plains CBC
• The one Piping Plover was a single at Chincoteague; that is solely the third CBC sighting within the final ten years
• A Lengthy-billed Curlew was situated on the Nassawadox CBC after not being reported on a CBC since 2015
• 2 Royal Terns had been noticed at Again Bay
• Just one Ash-throated Flycatcher was seen this 12 months on the Little Creek CBC after 4 had been recorded in 2023
• Again Bay CBC had the one Western Kingbird
• 6 Lapland Longspurs had been photographed on the Wachapreague CBC
• A Nashville Warbler was photographed in Washington DC; that is the fourth 12 months in a row that not less than one Nashville Warbler has been discovered on a VA/DC CBC
• 5 Snow Buntings had been found on two counts: 1 Again Bay & 4 Newport Information
• The one Yellow-breasted Chat was photographed on the Nansemond River CBC
• A single Harris’s Sparrow was photographed on the Hopewell rely; its final incidence on a Virginia CBC was in 2017
• 2 Western Tanagers had been seen on the Little Creek CBC and one was photographed
• A Rose-breasted Grosbeak was photographed throughout Depend Week on the Little Creek CBC; the final CBC sighting was additionally Depend Week on the Williamsburg CBC in 2014
• A Bullock’s Oriole was discovered for the second 12 months in a row on VA/DC CBCs; this 12 months it was photographed on the Washington DC rely
• 6 Pink Crossbills had been occurred: 2 Large Flat Mountain & 4 Fincastle

A couple of hybrids had been situated this 12 months:

• A Snow Goose x Canada Goose hybrid was documented on the Again Bay CBC
• 30 American Black Duck x Mallard hybrids had been recorded

These subspecies had been recognized:

• 17 Cackling Geese (Richardson’s) at Again Bay
• A Pink-tailed Hawk (abieticola) at Fincastle
• 3 Palm Warblers (Yellow/Jap) at Washington’s Birthplace
• 47 Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich) at: 12 Chincoteague, 33 Cape Charles & 2 Newport Information

A disappointing miss was that no Inexperienced Herons had been found; they’d been recorded on the earlier 5 CBCs.