December 19 Hancock County Christmas count

This should be the copmplete list of the Hancock County Christmas count, held last Saturday the 19th. I believe it totals 64 species, 1 "spuh", and 6 count week species. 38 people participated; about equall numbers of field people and "feeder watchers"
Contact me if you have any questions

Canada Geese 4775
Am Black Duck 4
Mallard 943
Bufflehead 1
Common Goldeneye 1 (count week)
Red-breasted Merganser 4 (count week)
Ruddy Duck 1
Wild Turkey 74
Common Loon 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1 (count week)
Great Blue Heron 4
Turkey Vulture 2
Bald Eagle 3
Harrier 2
Cooper's Hawk 9
Red-tailed Hawk 17
American Kestrel 14
American Coot 3
Sandhill Crane 2
Ring-billed Gull 124
Herring Gull 86
Great Black-backed Gull 12 Lake LeCompte (sp?) near Fostoria. Highest # ever for Hancock.
Rock Pigeon 297
Mourning Dove 284
Eastern Screech-Owl 3
Great Horned Owl 2
Barred Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 36
Downy Woodpecker 80
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 11
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 89
American Crow 30
Horned Lark 830
Black-capped Chickadee 53
Carolina Chickadee 3
Chickadee sp. 5
Tufted Titmouse 46
Red-breasted Nuthatch 63
Brown Creeper 8
Carolina Wren 8
Golden-crowned Kinglet 28
Eastern Bluebird 3 (Van Buren)
American Robin 10
Starling 2407
Cedar Waxwing 23
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 (count week)
Am. Tree Sparrow 160
Chipping Sparrow (count week)
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 5
White-throated Sparrow 17
White-crowned Sparrow 4
Golden-crowned Sparrow 1 (yes.......)
Dark-eyed Junco 175
Lapland Longspur 2 (count week, where the heck are they?)
Snow Bunting 9 (hundreds were found in county during the week)
Northern Cardinal 165
Common Grackle 17
Brown-headed Cowbird 26
Purple Finch 10
House Finch 139
Common Redpoll 1 (Camp Berry)
Pine Siskin 2
American Goldfich 151
House Sparrow 671

Thanks to Betty Hardesty to providing these numbers.

Findlay Reservoirs side note

As of Monday, the Findlay Reservoirs were largely ice-covered. #2, the large one, was >98% covered with snow on top, and #1, the small one, was 75-80% iced with one sizeable hole remaining.
This is weeks earlier than our ten year average and also flip-flopped from normal. Typically, #1 freezes first.

Waterfowl

That front from a few days ago really seemed to get the ducks and geese moving. On Sunday, I saw 2 Cackling Geese, Am. Wigeon, Shoveler, Am Black Duck, Ruddy Duck, Mallard and Redhead at Findlay Reservoir #1 (the small reservoir).
A bit later I stopped by Lake Cascades and saw an immature Greater White-fronted Goose. This is about the sixth or seventh record of this bird in Hancock County, about half of which are from Lake Cascades.
Lake Cascades is the large quarry just west of the hospital in Findlay and just east of SR15.

Sandhill Cranes

Late Friday morning, I saw about 165 Sandhill Cranes from the parking lot of Oakwoods NP, SW of Findlay. They were heading in a SSE direction. In the past, I've seen waterfowl follow this path. In the past, birds along this route tend to show up later around Killdeer Plains. Now, I'm not promissing that's where the cranes were heading, but Killdeer Plains is always good this time of year anyhow.
As a follow-up, Allen Chartier posted on the Ohio Birds ListServ that he saw 45 Sandhills near Carey, probably near the Hancock/ Wyandot County line. I also heard from om Bartlett that there had been at least three flocks of cranes (50, 100, 150 respectively) around Tiffin on Friday. Looks like Friday was the big push for them.

A good Saturday morning.

We finally have winter. Dodging snowflakes and pushed deer, I went east to a hike at Garlo Heritage Nature Preserve in Seneca County. It is south of Tiffin at the intersection of CR 6 and 19. While the hike was fairly quiet birding-wise, it was still a nice park to visit. Afterwards, I stopped at Forrest Nature Preserve, on CR 6 and drove by Howard Collier Nature Preserve, east of McCutchenville. On the way home, I took a look at Lake Cascades in Findlay. All told, a decent morning.
Some of the birds seen.
Cackling Goose 2 at Lake Cascades. They cooperated and were near the Interior and Lesser Canadas. It's a much easier i.d. when they're all together. :)
Canada Goose -150 at Cascades. Only noteable because most were Interiors, plus three Lessers.
One Canada X Domestic hybrid. It's a monster of a goose. Larger than an average Giant Canada.
Mallards and Black Ducks at Cascades.
Lesser Scaup- 200++ at the Findlay Reservoir #2
Pheasant- female at Collier
Bald Eagle -adult at Garlo
Red-shouldered- Collier
Rough-legged Hawk- patrolling a corn-stubble field on CR6, about 4 miles east of the Hancock/ Seneca County line.
Tons of Crows everywhere-Maybe they're being pushed out of the woods along with the deer?
Everywhere: White-throated Sparrows, Juncos, Tree Sparrows

An afternoon off

Today (Wed, Nov 25) I was actually able to leave at noon today. I had a long list of projects to do at home in the afternoon, so I went birding instead and ended up doing a nothern Hancock County route.
First, I stopped at the Findlay Reservoirs and was largely dissapointed. 16 Canada Geese, half-dozen loons and Ring-billed and Herring Gull were at I could find.
Next, I swung over to Fostoria Lake Mosier (Reservoir #4). Geese, gulls and about two dozen Mallards were present, plus a couple of Pintails.
Finally, I went west to the Hancock County Landfill, SW of Van Buren. A soaring Cooper's Hawk welcomed me there. No waterfowl were present in any of the ponds, but the woods yielded Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Tree Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows and more than a few Crows and Blue Jays.
All-in-all not a very exciting birding afternoon, but as the old saying goes the worst day of birding is better than the best day of work. Maybe that's not a saying, but it should be.

Some good late migrants

I hit Camp Berry, south of Findlay today (Sat the 17th). With this blast of cold, I figured that there would be a push of late Passerine migrants. I wasn't dissapointed.

Several of the migrants/ winter visitors seen:
Eastern Phoebe 2
Brown Creeper 3
Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglet about 20-30 each
Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler 7 This seems like an awfully high number, but I got very good, clear, short views of six of these.
Yellow-rumped Warbler 34+
Palm Warbler
Purple Finch 4
Sparrows seen were American Tree (many), Savannah, Fox, Song, Lincoln's, White-throat (gobs), White-crowned (2 dozen+), Junco

A sad by-product to migration today.

I recieved a call from my mother today at lunch. About 7:30 this morning, she found an injured warbler that aparently had a head on collision with a door at St. Michael Church, near the corner of Tiffin and Bigelow Avenues in Findlay. She said the bird was in bad shape and may have two broken wings.
When I saw the bird, my heart sank. It was an immature Connecticut Warbler. Its wings weren't broken, but rather it appeared to have suffered a severe concussion. That it initially survived the hit at all is rather amazing.
The only thing one can do with a bird concussion is to put it in a dark, quiet place and hope for the best, and that's if the head injury isn't too bad. This bird was too far gone and died not long after I saw it.
Migration is a very risky venture for birds. Houses, windows, guide wires, cats, hawks, not to mention hunger and exhaustion all take their toll. It's little wonder that the average mortality in a given year for some of our songbirds can approach 80%.

Fall migrant wave today (Sept 12)

Jeff Loughman and I decided to hit Camp Berry at dawn Saturday to see what was coming through. Despite the birding starting off rather slow, it definately picked up once the sun burned the fog off.

Several of our migrating highlights:
1 Olive-sided Flycatcher -great view, by the main lodge
1 Winter Wren
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
Veery, Gray-cheeked, Swainson's Thrushes- one of each
Warblers
2 Tennessee
6 Chestnut-sided
5 Magnolia
1 Cape May
1 Black-throated Blue
1 Yellow-rumped
1 Yellow-throated- by one of the concrete cabins on the north east side
1 Pine- maybe more
3 Blackpoll
1 Black-and-White
3 American Redstart

Equally surprising was the almost total lack of sparrows. We had just one Chipping.

Tomorrow looks like it will be a carbon copy of today weather-wise.

Fall migrants

Yes, I've been away for too long. Haven't been able to keep this darn thing as updated as I'd like.
Anyway,
Yesterday (Sept 6) showed a minor movement of shorebirds at Fostoria's Lake Mosier. Several Dunlin, as well as a couple Pectoral Sandpipers, a Semipalmated Plover and a Caspian Tern were present. Of note were the Killdeer, or rather all 173 of them.
Today, I dodged the rain and mosquitos and went out to Riverbend Recreational Area. Warblers passing through were Tennessee, Wilson's, Magnolia, Black-and-White, American Redstart, Nashville, and Ovenbird. Also present were Yellow-bellied, Least, and Acadian Flycatchers, and well as several Empids.