This year’s report has been prepared by Rick Keyser, our raw bird data compiler.
Thank you to each section leader, and to all other bird counters, for extending the tradition of the VFAS’s Spring Bird Count (SBC) for another year. The number of people counting for the VFAS Spring Bird Count was at a record high of 77 counters, swelled by participation of the Young Birders Club led by Patty Werth at the Black Rock Sanctuary. The number of count-parties that we fielded beat the averages, but was not a record high. The 97 total unique bird species that we found inside the circle is right on the average number from the past twenty-one of our SBCs. Our count compiler Vince Smith asked me to compose the wrap-up for this SBC.
Let’s begin the wrap-up with most people’s favorite, our local “rarities”:
- A Broad-winged hawk was observed flying over at the Gulph Mills Golf Course within section 5.
- A Sharp-shinned hawk was observed in section 1.
- An amazing record count of five Barred owls: three in section 1, one at Norristown Farm Park in section 6, and one at Evansburg SP inside section 8.
- A pair of Peregrines was observed where they’re known to nest by the Atwater Quarry at the edge of our count circle in section 4.
- A Yellow-throated warbler was heard singing along the Schuylkill River in Spring City inside section 2.
The addition of another early June record of our local bird populations has upped the credibility of abundance trend analyses for our count-circle area. We have recorded just over four decades worth of spring bird count data, each taken on a single day in the first week of June. The VFAS data set is providing for excellent short-term analysis and long-term analysis of our local bird populations.
A great example of year-over-year abundance trends that our data set can show for bird population changes in our local area involve the two Paridae species, Carolina chickadee and the Tufted titmouse. No worries, this long-winded story has a positive ending. The autumn of 2018 is when I first started to notice a marked decline in both their populations in and around where I live on the western edge of Phoenixville Borough. Since I had been watching both species here for 28 years, I knew that my “backyard” populations had never been as low going back to 1990. I began to wonder how localized this decline was. I initially hesitated to mention it to other bird watchers, as I know that they don’t like to listen to unwarranted pessimism. And I knew, with near certainty, that there would be fresh population counts of reliable accuracy for both species coming out of our 2018 Christmas count and our 2019 spring count. These new snapshots would let me know whether my observations had been strictly local to my neck of the woods. When I got those tallies totaled, I was saddened by the proof that our circle-wide chickadee and titmouse populations were down 75% and 80%, respectively, at the 2019 SBC compared to the year prior. It wasn’t only “my” birds that were scarce, which would have been better. It has taken eight years of slowly building back the populations of Carolina chickadee and Tufted titmouse, where, as counted by us this spring, both their count numbers have finally reached the level of our counts tallied at the 2018 SBC (see the “Summary All Years” worksheet).
Side note: I noted only recently that both of their populations had already begun to trend lower at the 2018 SBC compared to the 2017 SBC. It just wasn’t dramatic enough to us at the time to raise alarms. Perhaps a disease had already been spreading before the extremely wet summer of 2018. I believe we average around 40 inches of rain annually in SE Pennsylvania, but by Labor Day 2018 I think that we had breached 65 inches of rain. The speculation was that the unusual rain amounts affected the kinds of insects that feed nestling chickadees and titmice particularly hard. As it usually happens, probably a combination of factors pushed their populations down so dramatically and that suddenly.
The weather at sunrise on June 6th, 2026 came with clear skies, no wind, and temperatures in the mid-60’sF: an ideal beginning to a Saturday count. Clouds built in slowly during the course of the morning causing fully sunny skies to drift into partly sunny skies by noon. Wind grew noticeable as the morning hours marched forward, occasionally blowing at a Beaufort 3 level. By noon the temperatures had risen twenty degrees to the mid-80’s F.
The first ten years of our SBCs starting in 1986 were marked by significantly lower tallies for most bird species, perhaps in concert with the lower amounts of human effort done to count them. For this reason Vince Smith and I agreed to add some additional comparisons with this year’s results to the summary spreadsheet – that is, not only against a single average which spans our entire spring count history. You’ll see four different multi-year average columns in the spreadsheet now which go back fewer and fewer years from 2026. Not surprisingly, the total number of unique species found within the count circle remains stable throughout, from the very first VFAS SBC in 1986 up to this year’s count. But notice the distinct difference in average counts for most species as the more distant decades are stripped off.
Below I elaborate spring population trends which caught my eye for a subset of the bird species inside our count circle.
- We tied our record high count for Double-crested cormorants Comparison of the four averages shows a steady increase since inception.
- We smashed through our previous record high for Great Blue herons finding 82 of these herons.
- Second highest count for Green herons, bested only by the spring of 2009.
- Second highest count for Turkey vultures (record in 2023), yet a down trend continues for Black vultures.
- Second highest count for Wood ducks; the record was in the spring of 2004.
- Mallard numbers continue significantly lower compared with the three longer term average counts shown.
- Second highest count for Cooper’s hawks, bested only by the spring of 2014.
- Only one American kestrel; and wasn’t I lucky to have seen it sprint past us at Ridge Road Park along Route 23?
- The second spring in a row where Rock pigeons were tallied at less than half of the averages.
- We tied our record for Eastern Screech-owl. (This result is one of those which do not align with my own local patch in Phoenixville where they used to be common, seemingly absent now.)
- Chimney swifts are down by 35% from our most recent 11-year (i.e. 2016-2026) average.
- Northern Flicker notched an all-time VFAS SBC record count which maintains significantly above all four of the multi-year averages shown.
- Each of our other common woodpecker species is similarly maintaining above all four of its multi-year average figures.
- Another species which we smashed through our previous record high is the Eastern Wood-pewee at a whopping 165 birds. This is 12 more tallied than last spring’s record high count.
- The other five commonly observed flycatcher species within our count-circle are maintaining above all four of their multi-year average figures.
- The Eastern Warbling Vireo (recently gaining a second adjective due to a recent split) beat our previous record high by 3 individuals. Way to debut at the VFAS circle with your fresh name!
- Blue Jays missed our record high count by only one individual.
- Barn Swallows join the very small set of bird species which are well below all of their multi-year averages. We tallied a number this spring that is 29% below even the recent 11-year average for them within the VFAS count-circle.
- Our White-breasted Nuthatch count of 97 this spring smashed past our previous record high by 13 individuals. The question is whether all the standing dead ash trees are benefiting their carrying capacity locally, along with every one of our commonly observed woodpecker species too.
- Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were also found by us at a record high in 2026. A count of 97 gnatcatchers smashed our previous record high of the year 2020 by 8 birds.
- Eastern Bluebird populations here remain well above the average of our most recent 11 years of spring counts, let alone longer term averages.
- Our Veery count of 6 individuals was the third year in a row that it was half of the average number observed.
- We made the second highest count for Gray Catbirds at 1,073 birds, bested only by last spring’s number.
- This spring was the highest count since spring 2012 for Northern Mockingbirds at 96 birds.
- We tallied the third highest count of Brown Thrashers at 17 individuals.
- Fourth year in a row in which no Blue-winged warblers were found surpassed only by a five year drought from 2017 – 2021.
- Seven Pine Warblers makes our second highest spring count, maintaining the sudden jump in the number of them from four spring counts ago when in 2023 the record high was 8 birds.
- Spring 2026 is the second count in a row where only two Prairie Warblers were tallied, well below averages.
- Only one Louisiana Waterthrush was found. It was in section 10.
- Common Yellowthroats were tallied at a record high number of 223, beating spring 2023’s number by 14 birds.
- The Scarlet Tanager count of 13 birds was a welcome improvement after a disappointing showing here last spring.
- Yet another species at a record high count was our Eastern Towhee tally of 136 individuals this spring. It bested last spring’s record high count by five.
- It’s the second year in a row in which no Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were found. A drought of this many years has never occurred in our Spring Bird Count history before. Only last spring and the spring of 2021 were years in which none at all were found inside our count-circle.
- Our Bobolink count of eight birds documents their rebounding population in Valley Forge National Historical Park as a result of improved large field breeding habitat. The last year in which we counted as many for the SBC was in 1990 when 10 were recorded.
- A count of 848 was the second highest of Red-winged Blackbirds, significantly above the averages. Our 2024 spring count a couple years ago marked the record high of 916 birds.
- The Eastern Meadowlark count of 15 has only been bested by our very first VFAS Spring count in 1986 when 29 were recorded. Like the Bobolinks, all these were counted in Valley Forge NHP and can be attributed to improved habitat along North Outer Line Drive. Invasive plant removal was conducted on these fields a few years back. This activity restores the insect life which feeds on our native grasses and forbs, thereby improving the chances of the adult to feed their young birds with enough protein in order to arrive at fledging. Note: Continuing invasive plant removal process is occurring this late summer and fall on the fields of the Grand Parade located immediately to the north of the fields where the renewed abundance was enjoyed this June.
You can see the complete species list here.
