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Chairperson:
Carol MacFarlane at
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Last updated
May 24, 2002
by
Brian Elliot
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Following is the raw data from the 2001 Sussex Christmas Bird Count. It has been sorted by frequency of birds seen in 2001 and compared to the past 4 years. A few comments follow the chart.
| Year | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
| European Starling | 1087 | 660 | 1750 | 1536 | 2414 |
| Rock Dove | 405 | 891 | 289 | 545 | 964 |
| American Black Duck | 194 | 181 | 227 | 77 | 460 |
| Common Raven | 72 | 520 | 525 | 310 | 327 |
| American Crow | 205 | 878 | 306 | 144 | 300 |
| Black Capped Chickadee | 275 | 249 | 311 | 267 | 276 |
| Snow Bunting | 73 | 916 | 361 | 85 | 269 |
| Mourning Dove | 312 | 333 | 291 | 493 | 245 |
| House Sparrow | 147 | 99 | 27 | 103 | 174 |
| Blue Jay | 139 | 103 | 173 | 134 | 155 |
| Mallard | 36 | 56 | 34 | 15 | 140 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 101 | 167 | 151 | 116 | 104 |
| American Goldfinch | 79 | 274 | 233 | 222 | 101 |
| American Tree Sparrow | 78 | 169 | 44 | 0 | 70 |
| Canada Goose | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
| Herring Gull | 11 | 27 | 25 | 3 | 56 |
| Common Redpoll | 67 | 1 | 165 | 0 | 51 |
| Evening Grosbeak | 182 | 214 | 339 | 125 | 50 |
| Ring-necked Pheasant | 7 | 13 | 62 | 19 | 37 |
| Pine Siskin | 11 | 22 | 1 | 29 | 23 |
| Song Sparrow | 11 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 18 |
| Golden Crowned Kinglet | 15 | 11 | 20 | 19 | 16 |
| Pine Grosbeak | 77 | 1 | 84 | 3 | 13 |
| Bohemian Waxwing | 57 | 21 | 547 | 0 | 13 |
| Red-Breasted Nuthatch | 8 | 13 | 15 | 9 | 13 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 13 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 13 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 14 | 22 | 14 | 8 | 12 |
| Gray Jay | 4 | 7 | 11 | 14 | 10 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 8 |
| Common Merganser | 4 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Ruffed Grouse | 4 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 6 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Sharp-shin Hawk | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 5 |
| Fox Sparrow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 1 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 2 |
| Boreal Chickadee | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| House Finch | 0 | 11 | 15 | 6 | 2 |
| American Robin | 13 | 1 | 0 | 99 | 1 |
| Common Grackle | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Barred Owl | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Northern Goshawk | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Brown Creeper | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ruby Crowned Kinglet | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Rusty Blackbird | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Hoary Redpoll | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Northern Cardinal | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| White-winged Crossbill | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Great Horned Owl | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Pine Warbler | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chipping Sparrow | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Northern Flicker | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| White-crown Sparrow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 0 | 0 | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| Purple Finch | 0 | 22 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Red-breasted Merganser | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Horned Lark | 0 | 7 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| Northern Shrike | 4 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| Northern Harrier | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Saw Whet Owl | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Hermit Thrush | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Snowy Owl | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 3746 | 5964 | 6165 | 4472 | 6454 |
| Total # of Species Reported | 42 | 47 | 48 | 44 | 49 |
Bird Count Comments
by Brian Elliot
Once again I've spent several hours poring over the raw data to try and make some sense of it.
Some things stand out - In the past 28 years 2001 had the second highest number of birds counted (6465) and the second highest number of species (49). (Both were higher in 1994 - 8750 and 51 respectively.)
This was the first year to ever record Turkey Vultures - (2). It was only the 2nd time Fox Sparrows were recorded and 3rd time for Barred Owls.
The biggest numerical change was the European Starling which was 2,414 an increase of 1,179 over the last 10 year average. That is also the first time over 2,000 birds of a species have been counted! American Black Duck and Rock Dove also increased considerably over the 10 year average. On the other hand Evening Grosbeak, American Goldfinch and American Crow all decreased significantly over the 10 year average.