TO PARTICIPANTS IN 1997 SERC WINTER BIRD COUNT 
FROM : JIM LYNCH 
RE RESULT OF COUNT 
DATE : 12 JANUARY 1997 
Weather : So far, the winter of 1996-97 has been unusually mild. Temperatures reached into 
the 70’s a week prior to the count, breaking all-time records for the Baltimore-Washington 
region. This balmy weather quickly deteriorated, and falling temperatures and snow flurries 
characterized the pre-count week. About 1” of new snow blanketed the count area the night 
before the count. The morning of the count was calm, clear, and cool (ca. 25° F). The day 
remained on the cool side, with afternoon temperatures peaking at 34-36° F, but a stiff breeze 
had built by mid-day. The Rhode River and West River were free of ice, a welcome change from 
last year’s ice-locked conditions. 
The count .- We mustered 14 volunteers at the SERC visitor’s center at 07:00. As usual, we 
broke up into four parties, each of which covered a different sector of the 70 km 2 Rhode River 
count area (this is only about 5% the size of a standard 1,810 km 2 Audubon Christmas Count 
circle). Each party was in the field for 6.5-9 hours. Weather conditions were reasonably good, 
and our final tally of 66 bird species was moderately high compared with previous SERC counts. 
We easily exceeded 1996’s miserable total of 44 species and 1995’s 60 species, but did not 
match the 1993,1994 counts, which yielded 70 and 68 species, respectively. Last year’s ice¬ 
bound conditions were anathema to water birds, and in 1996 we counted only 2 species of 
waterfowl (Canada Goose and Tundra Swan). This year we tallied 13 waterfowl species, a record 
for the SERC count. Other major contrasts with last year’s results included a steep decline in 
numbers of Canada Geese (313 vs. 2184) and a huge influx of Ruddy Ducks (none in past three 
years, vs. 1,248 this year). Unusual species (for the SERC area) in this year’s count included 
the first ever records of Hooded Merganser and American Coot, and our second-ever Fox 
Sparrow and Chipping Sparrow. 
Thanks to all of you for helping out, and I look forward to seeing you again next year. 
cc: Ed Balinsky, Chris Barkan, Danny Bystrak, Paul Fofonoff, Tod Heisler, Chris Himes, 
Stephanie Jamieson, Jim Lynch, Karen Marti, Linda McCann, Jess Parker, Chris 
Swarth, Charles Weatherhill, Denny Whigham 
