Exciting and alarming news from the latest Charlotte area bird counts

I have completed compiling the data from the Southern Lake Norman Christmas Bird Count, and since I was on a roll, I decided to compile and compare species counts for the 25-year life of that count.

One of the great things about a long-term data collection is that trends can be spotted in bird populations over the years. Indeed, Christmas Count results over time are used to identify species in trouble and those that are increasing. After examining the occurrence of selected species reported over the 25-year period of the Southern Lake Norman Christmas Bird Count I was able to spot trends that reflect the regional or even national picture.

Take the bald eagle for instance. For the first 12 years of the count eagles were seen only three years, but a bald eagle has been tallied 12 out of the last 13 years, reflecting the national trend of population recovery and boom for the species.

Similarly, it was noted about 10 years ago that common ravens were spreading into the piedmont from the mountains. No ravens were found in the first 16 years of the count but have been tallied in eight out of the last nine years.

The increase in wintering rufous hummingbirds in the Southeast has been well-documented over the last few decades. For the first 12 years of the count zero hummingbirds were located but over a span of the last 13 years a rufous hummingbird has been counted seven times.

Long-term data indicates birds that are common wintering species to our south and east are increasingly being found farther north and west, almost certainly a result of overall milder winters. Orange-crowned warblers are regularly found coastally, but in only four out of the first 20 years of the Southern Lake Norman count. But in just the last five years the species has been found four times!

All of the above trends reflect good news for those interesting and charismatic species, but as far as bird populations go, nothing makes me sadder than the decline of the loggerhead shrike. The population has absolutely collapsed in much of the eastern United States.

Shrikes were never missed in the first 16 years; sometimes double-digit numbers were even reported. But that species has been found only twice in the last nine years. Very, very alarming.

This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Exciting and alarming news from the latest Charlotte area bird counts."