With the coming of winter in Adams County, there are a few annual events you can rely on. Piercing cold temps, slick roads, wet boots, sore throats, taxes and my favorite, the Adams County Christmas Bird Count (CBC)
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| Cold day in Adams County, Ohio |
This is not an event where we count Christmas birds (there is no such thing). Instead, groups of participants gather in territories to count all birds seen or heard, like cedar waxwings, gold-crowned kinglets and Wilson's snipe (there is such a thing). Much of the Edge of Appalachia Preserve (EOA) is within the "circle" or countable area which is a 15 mile radius centering at the courthouse in West Union, Ohio.
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| Typical view when driving around EOA searching for wintering birds |
Many of the birds utilizing Ohio in the winter are not the same birds you might see in the summer. Many of our resident birds leave, following food sources to the south, and birds you see in the winter may have come from the north for the same reasons. The Audubon Society wanted to keep track of the numbers of wintering birds species and individuals in every state in the winter. So they chose the count to take place in the weeks leading up to, or just past Christmas.
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| Purple finch, a winter visiting species eating sunflower seeds from a very nice guy's feeder! |
As compiler, I take all the numbers of individual birds and species each group counts in their pre-determined territories, and combine them for the Audubon Society who has been keeping this data for 118 years. Adams County has been a part of the Christmas Bird Count for at least 40 years.
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| CBC teams count all birds encountered, even if large flocks fly by like these Canada geese |
This year, on December 16, 2017, the groups in all 11 territories found a total of 79 species and 9734 individuals. Not bad for the small number of 23 folks that came out to count that day.
The territory around the preserve (which is a small portion of the entire circle) usually finds close to 50 species of birds and close to 900 individuals on average that count day. This year, the preserve territory produced 53 species and 702 individuals. With a lot of forest in this territory, we feel obligated to find difficult wintering forest species like hermit thrush, red-breasted nuthatch, yellow-bellied sapsucker, brown creeper and ruffed grouse. Only the latter was not found this year, and interestingly has not been counted on our CBC for at least 6 years. A trend that CBC data can capture in its records.
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| CBC is a nice way to get out and enjoy some of our more common resident birds like this Downy Woodpecker. |
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| Fox sparrow, another winter visitor is sometimes hard to find on the day of the count. 4 were found this year. |
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| Dark-eyed Junco, another winter visitor will frequent feeders if you have them |
Here is the tally for all birds found on December 16, 2017.
Snow Goose 1 |
| Canada Goose 837 |
| Wood Duck 9 |
| Gadwall 9 record high number |
| American Black Duck 66 |
| Mallard 616 record high number |
| Green-winged Teal 3 |
| Ring-necked Duck 3 |
| Lesser Scaup 285 record high number |
| Bufflehead 12 |
| Hooded Merganser 46 |
| Wild Turkey 18 |
| Pied-billed Grebe 1 |
| Great Blue Heron 8 |
| Black Vulture 173 |
| Turkey Vulture 15 |
| Northern Harrier 5 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 |
| Cooper's Hawk 5 |
| Bald Eagle 6 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk 6 |
| Red-tailed Hawk 47 |
| American Coot 1 |
| Sandhill Crane 3 Second time found during Adams Co. CBC |
| Killdeer 5 |
| Ring-billed Gull 2 |
| Rock Pigeon 274 |
| Mourning Dove 405 |
| Eastern Screech-Owl 10 |
| Great Horned Owl 5 |
| Barred Owl 5 |
| Belted Kingfisher 7 |
| Red-headed Woodpecker 7 |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker 50 |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 3 |
| Downy Woodpecker 47 |
| Hairy Woodpecker 17 |
| Northern Flicker 19 |
| Pileated Woodpecker 16 |
| American Kestrel 65 |
| Eastern Phoebe 3 |
| Blue Jay 214 |
| American Crow 395 |
| Horned Lark 49 |
| Carolina Chickadee 95 |
| Tufted Titmouse 105 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch 3 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch 87 |
| Brown Creeper 4 |
| Winter Wren 3 |
| Carolina Wren 41 |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet 18 |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 |
| Eastern Bluebird 224 |
| Hermit Thrush 1 |
| American Robin 976 |
| Brown Thrasher 3 |
| Northern Mockingbird 16 |
| European Starling 2998 |
| Cedar Waxwing 52 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler 85 |
| American Tree Sparrow 36 |
| Field Sparrow 51 |
| Fox Sparrow 4 |
| Dark-eyed Junco (Slatecolored) 171 |
| White-crowned Sparrow 35 |
| White-throated Sparrow 92 |
| Song Sparrow 99 |
| Swamp Sparrow 5 |
| Eastern Towhee 9 |
| Northern Cardinal 248 |
| Red-winged Blackbird 20 |
| Eastern Meadowlark 39 |
| Common Grackle 49 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird 55 |
| House Finch 48 |
| Purple Finch 15 |
| American Goldfinch 136 |
| House Sparrow 134 |
| Total Individuals 9734 |
| Total Species Reported 79 |
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| Yellow-bellied sapsucker is the woodpecker that leaves lines of holes on trees. Photo by Robyn Wright-Strauss |
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| White-breasted nuthatch, a resident bird commonly hears in the forest sounding like a nasally Long Islander saying "Hank, Hank, Hank'. Photo by Robyn Wright-Strauss. |
Some
notable species found this year were Sandhill cranes, which have only been
counted 1 other time on count day, a
snow goose which has only been found 3 years, a ruby-crowned kinglet was found
for the 10th time and 3 Eastern phoebe’s were counted which can be
difficult here in the winter.
Bald
eagles seem to be getting more and more frequent as we tied the record high
with 6. Along with brown thrashers which
also had a tie with the record high of 3.
The only record high numbers of individuals this year were Mallards at
616, Gadwall at 9 and 285 Lesser Scaup.
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| A very far away shot of a bald eagle. 6 were found on count day. |
Many thanks to all who participate, and if you are looking for a fun adventure next winter, join your local CBC next year. Info can be found at www.christmasbirdcount.org
Posted by: Mark Zloba
