Christmas Bird Count 2024/2025 Results Are In

Long-tailed duck

Every year, bird enthusiasts across the country brave the chilly winter temps with binoculars in gloved hands to participate in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). On the East End specifically, Group director of education Steve Biasetti leads the annual Quogue-Water Mill CBC. This 76th annual count took place on December 15, 2024, with 25 volunteers documenting 23,785 individual birds of 115 species.

Search areas included Post Lane Bridge (Quogue) to Shinnecock Inlet (Hampton Bays) south of Sunrise Highway; Spinny Road to Shinnecock Canal (Hampton Bays) generally north of Sunrise Highway; Shinnecock Canal (Hampton Bays) to Wickapogue Road and Fowler Street (Water Mill) south of the LIRR tracks; Shinnecock Canal (Hampton Bays) to Rose’s Grove north of Montauk Highway; and Shinnecock Canal at Meschutt Beach (Hampton Bays), Bullhead Bay, Big Fresh Pond, Mill Pond, Mecox Bay (Water Mill).

During the Quogue Water Mill CBC’s 76 years (1949 through 2024), 206 bird species have been recorded overall. 22 of these species have been found in all 76 years: Canada goose, mute swan, American black duck, mallard, greater scaup, bufflehead, common goldeneye, red-breasted merganser, common loon, horned grebe, great blue heron, sanderling, ring-billed gull, herring gull, great black-backed gull, northern flicker, blue jay, American crow, black-capped chickadee, European starling, song sparrow, and house sparrow.

Another five species have been recorded in all but one year, and were observed again in this year’s count:  long-tailed duck (missed in 1955), dunlin (1949), belted kingfisher (1957), downy woodpecker (1956), and white-throated sparrow (1952).

While no new species were encountered during the count, several uncommon birds were seen or heard. Cackling goose was observed for the second time, common gallinule and red-headed woodpecker were reported for the fourth time, Lapland longspur made its sixth appearance overall, and glaucous gull was found for just the ninth time in Count history.

Additionally, a few birds were observed that have been recorded rarely during the Quogue Water Mill Count’s history, however less infrequently in recent times. Northern saw-whet owl was found for the seventh time, yet fifth time in the past six years. As mentioned in last year’s report, naturalists have become adept at detecting the presence of this species in recent years, particularly with increased use of technological aids. These changes may allow naturalists to note the species’ presence more regularly as the counts continue.

For other scarcely reported birds, their presence this year may hint at their increased seasonal presence may hint at winter range expansions in the northeast US. The northern house wren was reported for just the eighth time in Count history, yet all of these records have come since 1993. The case is similar for eastern phoebe (eighth record, all since 2008), orange-crowned warbler (eleventh; all since 1975), lesser black-backed gull (twelfth; all since 1997), common raven (twelfth all since 1912), and pine warbler (fiteenth; all since 1977).

Fun fact: the lesser black-backed gull is a European species that seems to have made the range expansion on their own across the Atlantic Ocean. Significant nesting colonies have not been found in North America to date, yet they are clearly here on a regular basis in persistent numbers.

The vast majority of expected species were found on Count Day 2024. Among the few tough misses were eastern meadowlark (missed for tenth time overall, including last seven years), horned lark (fourteenth miss), and Bonaparte’s gull (fifteenth miss). Other species that fit the category by being recorded in more than one-half of the 76 annual counts, but not found this year: common grackle, Wilson’s snipe, American bittern, brown-headed cowbird, killdeer, and northern bobwhite. 

The native northern bobwhite population has disappeared from Long Island in the past three decades. Any encounters in the 2000s may have been individual birds introduced by humans.

For eastern meadowlark, there has been a loss in their grasslands nesting habitat. During the nesting season locally Calverton is the most reliable place to observe them. In the winter, meadowlarks do wander to salt marsh habitats, which is where they’ve been seen during the CBC. They have been recorded in 66 of the 76 Quogue-Water Mill CBC since 1949, but have been missed the last seven years. This recent trend reveals a drop in meadowlark numbers on eastern Long Island in the winter.

HISTORY 
The Quogue-Water Mill CBC began in 1949, but had few participants for its first 25 years. In fact, the count did not reach 10 participants until 1971, and did not exceed 20 participants until 1976. In the early years of the count, it would be reasonable to assume that overall numbers were handicapped by the low number of participants. Hence, the QWM CBC did not reach 100 species for the first time until 1974. Averages for the first 25 years (1949-1973) were 4.4 participants, 73.8 species, and 8,634 individual birds. In comparison, the 51-year period spanning 1974 to 2024 shows averages of 25.3 participants, 107.5 species, and 23,618 individual birds. Over the entire term of the Quogue-Water Mill CBC (i.e., the 76 counts between 1949 and 2024), averages are 18.3 participants, 96.6 species, and 18,689 individual birds.

As in recent annual analyses, the 2024 QuoguepWater Mill CBC numbers are measured against those since 1974, when the Count regularly included at least 10 participants and exceeded 100 species annually. In relation to the post-1973 numbers, the 2024 count compares favorably in all regards: the number of participants is roughly at the average (25), the number of species comfortably exceeds the average (115), and the number of individual birds recorded is slightly above the average (23,785).

While this most recent count totaled quite a bit more birds than the past few years, it fits within the ebbs and flows of the count numbers throughout the years. For example, the 2014 Count exceeded the 2024 Count, and the 2012 Count nearly doubled the 2024 numbers.

We look forward to being in the field again counting winter bird species next season!