Blue Ridge Birders member James Coman scouts for birds as part of the New River Christmas Bird Count Dec. 21, joined by the family dog Scapa. The pond shown is located on Coman's farm in the Piney Creek area.

Area birders have an eye on the sky

Bird tallies were way down during recent annual censuses.

"Far fewer birds than normal are wintering here in the northern mountains of N.C. than usual," said James Coman, compiler for the New River Christmas Bird Count, in a release Monday.

The count is conducted each year by Blue Ridge Birders, a chapter of the Carolina Bird Club.

Only 48 species were reported, Coman said, down from the usual 65 to 70. While Dec. 21, the date designated for the New River count, was extremely windy and therefore not conducive for bird sightings, Coman attributed the shortage of birds primarily to the lack of berries.

"Field work under good to excellent conditions since have shown normally good, productive cover to be nearly devoid of birds.

"The six reporting field parties (10 individuals) and two feeder watchers consistently reported few berry or fruit eating birds, probably as a result of the loss of all soft mast due to the late May (2002) freeze.

Only one yellow-rumped warbler, one hermit thrush and three robins were found, and only eight mockingbirds, only two phoebes," he commented in his summary.

Coman said the phoebe is the only fly-catcher which stays in this area during the winter.

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