Vigo Spring Bird Count Sets New Record of 168 Species

             This year’s count on May 13, 2006, reached a record high of 168 species, 11 more than last year’s record.  Where will it end?  One hundred ninety species may be possible to find; there are probably that many species in Vigo county air space on the second weekend of May.  The state as a whole logs an average of 245 species on the 40 or so second-Saturday-of-May counts.

            Anyway, we did very well with the help of the half-day of drizzly weather and all-day overcast conditions.  I say that instead of “in spite of”, because it seems that a little drizzle helps ground the birds.  It was pleasantly cool as well, and maybe the shift to Daylight Savings Time helped get us out earlier.  We did unusually well in shorebirds (15 species) and in the bitterns-and-rails department (including four tough species: American & Least Bittern, King and Virginia Rail).  There were mudflats for shorebirds at Pfizer and at Duke Power.  New birds for the count (not recorded in the previous 37 years) were Peregrine Falcon, Wilson’s and Red-necked Phalaropes, Franklin’s Gull.  Ring-necked Duck, Black-crowned Night-Heron, King Rail, and Stilt Sandpiper were seen for only the second time.  Stilt sandpiper, Franklin’s gull, and red-necked phalarope were not seen on any count in Indiana last year.  We did very well on warblers too: 28 species, including hard-to-get Orange-crowned, Mourning, and Canada warblers.

            On top of this, we barely missed a couple of other species.  On count day, Diana Hews and I found Upland Sandpiper just 0.3 miles north of the county line in Universal mine (last year it was 0.1 miles into the county) and a Forster’s Tern also just across the line.  The turnover at Pfizer pond was rapid: on May 14 and 15 three new species turned up, Hudsonian Godwit, White-rumped Sandpiper, and Black-necked Stilt.

            This year’s participants were Dick Bonness, Justin Boyles, Michael Brown, Jane Chestnut, Susie Dewey, Ruth Erickson, Skitz Evrard, Lorna Fenio, Darlene Gemlich, John Haag, Diana Hews, John Lima, Steve Lima, Bill Mitchell, Margaret Moga, Erin Morris, Eugene Muench, Denise Prothero, Tim Roth, Peter Scott, Denise Sobieski, John Storm, Henry Tamar, Margaret Tamar, Sylvia Vanatti, and Dan Weber.  The A+ for Effort award goes to ISU graduate students Roth, Storm and Boyles who birded from 4:30 AM to 9:45 PM, thus producing two bitterns and three rail species, among other finds.  A hearty countdown party was hosted by Susie Dewey in the evening.

            The first official Vigo spring count was in 1966.  It’s been done every year since then except for three, when it either was not done or was not reported in time to be published in the Indiana Audubon Quarterly (and hence vanished from history).  2006 is thus the 38^th year.  A cumulative total of 227 species have been recorded for the county; 20 have been seen only once.  There have been 140 birders participating over those 38 years, i.e. a core group has done most of them (since we usually have 20-25 on each count).  The Vigo birders who have done the most counts are Ruth Erickson (21), Henry Tamar (19), Margaret Tamar (18), and Maribeth Eberwein (18); trailing them, among those still participating, are Dick Bonness (12), Dan Weber and Eugene Muench (11), Joy and Mike Sacopulos (10), and Susie Dewey-Lorna Fenio-Alice Fowler-Steve Lima (9 each).

-- Peter Scott, for co-compiler Dan Weber – June 1, 2006

This page last modified 12/11/06