Montrose Big Day Part II – 103 Species, May 21, 2014

I ran another Big Day at Montrose today, May 21. My first Big Day on May 8 yielded 103 species in 5.5 hours, split between 4.5 hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. Today I started at 5:30 a.m. and ended at 10 for the morning shift, and again from 4 to 5 p.m. for the afternoon shift, so I started and ended at the same time and did the same number of hours as my May 8 attempt. I ended up with 103 species, the same as last time. I couldn’t have picked a better day to do a Big Day as Montrose was loaded with birds. I haven’t seen passerine numbers like this in some years. Every tree and shrub seemed to be dripping with warblers. Here’s my complete list:

Canada Goose
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Red-breasted Merganser
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Least Bittern
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Cooper’s Hawk
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Sanderling
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Forster’s Tern
Caspian Tern
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Downy Woodpecker
Black-billed Cuckoo
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
Alder Flycatcher
Willow Flycatcher
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Red-eyed Vireo
Philadelphia Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Purple Martin
Bank Swallow
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Veery
Swainson’s Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Northern Waterthrush
Ovenbird
Canada Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-breasted Chat
Mourning Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Bobolink
Dickcissel
Scarlet Tanager
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Orchard Oriole
American Goldfinch

I had 98 species in the morning and 5 more when I went back in the afternoon. The 5 additional birds I had in the afternoon were Cliff Swallow, Black-crowned Night-Heron, American Coot, Northern Parula, and White-throated Sparrow. Unlike last time I checked the Golf Course Pond, which added the Night-Heron. I also had 24 species of warblers, which is the best I’ve done at Montrose in a long time.