Hi Folks,

This is just a friendly reminder that this Saturday, December 17th, is the
Oxford Christmas Bird Count hosted by Audubon Miami Valley!

I definitely encourage you to get out and help count this weekend!

I'll be participating in the Oxford count, but don't let that stop you from
participating (I thought I'd better get that jab in there on myself before
someone else did.)

Seriously though, this year seems to be shaping up as an interesting
birding year.  One of my early predictions is that we'll see record numbers
of Cooper's Hawks this year.  I have seen numerous reports of Cooper's
Hawks throughout the state this year (particularly in central Ohio), and
I've already encountered more Cooper's hawks in the past month or two than
I normally do in a single year.  Additionally, most of the reports I've
seen, and most of the individuals I've encountered, have been juvenile
birds.  It'll be interesting to see if my prediction is supported by the
data.

On a different note I was out birding at a couple of local (central Ohio)
metroparks over the weekend.  Glacier Ridge metropark, located northwest of
Columbus off of US33 near Marysville, held little in the way of abundance
but held a few interesting sightings.  There was a pair of Red-tailed hawks
hunting over the fields together.  They seemed to be perching together and
interacting pretty closely together, but not agonisticaly.  Would this be a
mating pair already?  Preston & Beane, in the Birds of North America,
suggest that nest building doesn't start until late February or early March
for most birds, though there has been late December nest-building
documented in Arizona...but that's a little different than Ohio in late
December.

In addition to the Red-tails there were one or two Northern Harriers
hunting over the fields at Glacier Ridge.  I've noticed there seems to be
significantly fewer Harriers this year than in previous years.  It was
suggested at the OOS Raptor Seminar that this may be a result of a low
abundance of vole prey species this year.  I know a lot of vole research
occurs at Miami U. and didn't know if anyone has heard of similarly low
abundance of voles in the southwestern part of the state from any of the
researchers there.  This may also explain why there seems to be very few
reports of short-eared owls (and long-eared owls) this year as well from
the traditional sites (Killdeer Plains for example).  This is just a
perception so it will be interesting to see what kind of results are
produced over the coming weeks from the Christmas Bird Count data.

For more details and information about the Oxford Christmas Bird Count
Download AMV's pdf newsletter:
http://www.audubonmiamivalley.org/Newsletters/AMVnewsletterDec05.pdf


If you're interested in checking out some photos I took while I was out
birding this weekend feel free to visit:
http://caseybirdphotos.blogspot.com/

I look forward to seeing you all out this weekend for another great
Christmas Bird Count!

Good Birding!

Casey
Columbus, OH