Last week we challenged you to find the state birds or birds with American in their name. 6 people answered the challenge. The bragging rights go to Susan Markum who found the most birds (and spent the most time birding) while on her camping trip to Croft State Park in the Upstate. She found 11 species in 15 hours of birding. No surprise, she was the only one to see an American Goldfinch. This was fun because earlier in the week, I told Gina Sanders she couldn’t count the American Goldfinch on her feeder cam in Greenville while she was on Seabrook Island.
15 species were seen in total. Analysis shows that no surprise, all 6 people saw American Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, and Northern Cardinal. I had to work for it but all 6 also saw a Mississippi Kite. The 15 species and the number of people who saw are:
American Crow – 6
American Goldfinch (also state bird for IA, NJ, and WA) – 1
American Oystercatcher – 1
American Robin (also state bird for CT, MI, and WI) – 1
Carolina Chickadee – 6
Carolina Wren (also state bird for SC) – 6
Louisiana Waterthrush – 1
Mississippi Kite – 6
Bald Eagle – 2
Northern Mockingbird (AR, FL, MS, TN, and TX) – 3
Brown Thrasher (GA) – 4
Northern Cardinal (IL, IN, KY, NC, OH, VI, and WV) – 6
Brown Pelican (LA) – 3
Baltimore Oriole (MD) – 1
Eastern Bluebird (MO, NY) – 6
Susan Markum was the single person who saw American Robin, Louisiana Waterthrush and Baltimore Oriole. Gina Sanders saw the American Oystercatcher on North Beach.
The reporting form had opportunity to enter comments (of course I received most of these in texts).
– Joleen Ardiaolo wanted to count the American Flamingos decorating the LSV that followed her in the parade
– Gina Sanders (as mentioned above) wanted to count American Goldfinch on Greenville feeder-cam.
– If either of these were counted, I wanted to include the Green Heron that had it’s neck stretched and looked like an American Bittern.
– I whined because the Wild Turkey that usually appears daily below my feeders didn’t appear during the challenge.
– Someone (it could have been me) wanted to rename all those Laughing Gulls to American Gulls so they could be counted.
– I was surprised no one suggested the Tricolor Herons should have counted since their old name was Louisiana Heron.
It was a fun activity for a hot holiday weekend. We plan to do it again next year!
Submitted by: Judy Morr