Author: Dave Bonta

The last of our breeding birds, wood pewee and indigo bunting, returned to the mountain just in time for International Migratory Bird Day on May 12. Most of the counting this year was done by Marcia, as she recounts on her blog, with help from some of our hunter friends, who were on the mountain very early in pursuit of spring gobblers. A one-day count may not fully capture the species richness here — we know we missed the nesting sharp-shinned hawks, for example — but it gives a pretty good idea of the birds’ relative abundance. The commonest birds on the mountain appear to be red-eyed vireo (20), scarlet tanager (17), eastern towhee (15), ovenbird (13), black-throated green warbler (13), and wood thrush (11). These numbers represent, if anything, an increase from past years, and lend credence to the claims of ornithologists that threatened birds such as scarlet tanagers and wood thrushes would do fine if given sufficient unfragmented forest habitat. Marcia also logged a golden-winged warbler at the edge of Sapsucker Ridge, a species in precipitous decline due to a lack of shrubland habitat and to competition and hybridization with the closely related blue-winged warbler, whose range is expanding northward, possibly as a consequence of global warming.

1. mallard–1
2. ruffed grouse–5
3. wild turkey–7
4. great blue heron–1
5. turkey vulture–3
6. red-tailed hawk–1
7. killdeer–1
8. mourning dove–3
9. yellow-billed cuckoo–8
10. whip-poor-will–2
11. ruby-throated hummingbird–1
12. red-bellied woodpecker–1
13. downy woodpecker–1
14. northern flicker–2
15. pileated woodpecker–2
16. eastern wood-pewee–4
17. Acadian flycatcher–4
18. eastern phoebe–2
19. great-crested flycatcher–6
20. blue-headed vireo–4
21. red-eyed vireo–20
22. blue jay–8
23. American crow–4
24. common raven–1
25. black-capped chickadee–4
26. tufted titmouse–6
27. white-breasted nuthatch–1
28. blue-gray gnatcatcher–2
29. wood thrush–11
30. American robin–2
31. gray catbird–2
32. golden-winged warbler–1
33. black-throated blue warbler–2
34. yellow-rumped warbler–2
35. black-throated green warbler–13
36. blackburnian warbler–1
37. bay-breasted warbler–1
38. black-and-white warbler–9
39. American redstart–8
40. worm-eating warbler–8
41. ovenbird–13
42. Louisiana waterthrush–1
43. common yellowthroat–7
44. hooded warbler–5
45. scarlet tanager–17
46. eastern towhee–15
47. chipping sparrow–3
48. field sparrow–4
49. song sparrow–3
50. northern cardinal–4
51. rose-breasted grosbeak–7
52. indigo bunting–6
53. common grackle–4
54. brown-headed cowbird–5
55. Baltimore oriole–2
56. American goldfinch–5