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Congaree Swamp and Columbia CBC highlights



This past weekend we had two Christmas Bird Counts in the Columbia area, the
Congaree Swamp CBC (which covers quite a lot of farmland outside of the
park, plus most of  the town of St. Matthews) on Saturday, 16 Dec 2000, and,
on Sunday,  the Columbia CBC (which covers the southeast part of the city
down to the edge of the Congaree Swamp National Monument -- the two count
circles are tangent).  I don't know which count had worse weather, the cold
fog on Saturday or the violent wind, rain, and even a bit of snow (snow is a
four letter word around here) on Sunday.

Conditions were just awful for both counts, and participation was way down,
but still be managed to find a few goodies. Dennis Forsythe and his party,
in the St. Matthews area, found a number of goodies.  The Eurasian
Collared-Doves are still present in St. Matthews.  Dennis and party also
found a Virginia Rail (at the old St. Matthews sewage lagoon north of town)
and even a Northern Bobwhite!  Bobwhites were common 20 years ago, but not
now.  The Congaree CBC also had good numbers of Palm Warblers and a
Black-and-white Warbler.

On the Columbia count at least we could see.  We couldn't stand up half the
time, with winds gusting to 50 mph, but we could see.  Dr. Richard Sassnet,
counting his neighborhood around Lake Katherine in Columbia, got a nice
photograph of a young male Rufous/Allen's Hummingbird coming to his feeder.
Steve Dennis and I found a couple of goodies as well.  We had a mixed
blackbird flock with at least 40 Brewer's Blackbirds, seen well.  Steve and
I studied them at close range (within 30 meters) for 5 minutes, while I gave
Steve a tutorial on identifying this species, which I got to know fairly
well while living in Dallas, TX in the 1980's.  At a local catfish pond we
found a few shorebirds, including a very much out-of-place Sanderling.

My favorite bird finding story from the Columbia count comes from Heidi
Hoerman.  We got together at a local Shoneys for lunch and I gave Heidi her
afternoon assignment -- be sure to find a House Sparrow in town.  Heidi
dutifully visited one fast food restaurant after another, without success.
Finally, in her words, she asked herself, "House Sparrow -- trash bird.
Where can I find a trash bird on Sunday afternoon in Columbia?" Her
answer -- Walmart!  Sure enough there were 47 House Sparrows roosting in the
letters of the big Walmart sign at the local store. Mission accomplished!

I have been on colder CBC's, including -25 degrees in Black Lake,
Saskatchewan, but I have seldom felt colder out birding than I was on
Sunday.  I hope that the rest of the count period goes better.  In the mean
time Caroline and I will be driving down to south Florida, astensibly to
look for the Western Spindalis at Spanish River Park, but actually to get
warm.

Cheers,

Robin Carter
Columbia, SC
rcarter@sc.rr.com