Greetings... The Hamilton-Fairfield Christmas Bird Count was held on
Saturday, December 17. We had one of the lowest counter turnouts in a while,
yet we managed to cover basically all the areas we normally count each year.
We totaled 83 species, which beats the former high count of 76, I think,
from 2000 . . . maybe it was then . . . Something like that. Audubon keeps
track of this stuff better than I do. "You can look it up," as Yogi Berra
once said.
Anyway, prior to Saturday, I believed that 75 species was about the expected
high-water mark for this count, but events--weather mostly, I guess--proved
me wrong. We did well with our numbers of species, but the waterfowl
*numbers* are rather sparse, really, with a number of species showing up as
lone birds or in single digits. And a number of other species made the
list--barely. So make of the list what you will. I don't have party numbers
or party miles, etc., worked up yet.
Greater White-fronted goose 8 (flock of 8 along Great Miami in Hamilton.
Very
rare for this count. Mixed adults and juveniles.)
Snow Goose 3 (Trenton gravel pit, 1 blue and 2 white forms.)
Canada Goose 3460
Mute Swan 1 (Only on a CBC does one get excited about this species showing
up.
And even then . . . )
Wood Duck 1 (A nice surprise.)
Gadwall 7
American Wigeon 4
American Black Duck 5
Mallard 408
Northern Shoveler 1
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 1
Ring-necked Duck 83
Scaup species 1
Bufflehead 3
Common Goldeneye 2
Hooded Merganser 8
Common Merganser 2 (A nice surprise.)
(This is probably a record or near record for waterfowl on this count. Most
ponds and gravel pits were frozen and almost all the waterfowl and waterbird
reports are from the Great Miami River. None of the numbers, with the
exception of Canada Geese, were very high.)
Wild Turkey 5 (two parties reported.)
Pied-billed Grebe 9
Double-crested Cormorant 3 (On the Great Miami River, and not an easy bird
at all for this count.)
Great Blue Heron 18
Bald Eagle 1 (A sub-adult [second-year] in downtown Hamilton. Second record
for this count, I think.)
Northern Harrier 8 (multiple reports. Good numbers for our count.)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 8
Red-tailed Hawk 32
American Kestrel 20
American Coot 24
Killdeer 6
Ring-billed Gull 451
Herring Gull 3
Rock Pigeon 308
Mourning Dove 481
Eastern Screech-Owl 5
Great Horned Owl 9
Belted Kingfisher 12
Red-bellied Woodpecker 34
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 12 (good numbers for this count, it seems.)
Downy Woodpecker 56
Hairy Woodpecker 5
Northern Flicker 11
Pileated Woodpecker 3
Blue Jay 29
American Crow 94
Horned Lark 97 (Pretty good numbers for our count.)
Carolina Chickadee 177
Tufted Titmouse 44
Red-breasted Nuthatch 9 (Good number for our count.)
White-breasted Nuthatch 28
Brown Creeper 21
Carolina Wren 61
Winter Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 16
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5 (The Great Miami between Rentschler Forest and Camp
Campbell Gard produced three birds, with two more at Harbin Park for a total
of five, plus a count week bird on Friday along the Great Miami River at
Joyce Park.)
Eastern Bluebird 54
Hermit Thrush 6 (Rentschler Forest with 5 & Camp Campbell Gard with 1 saved
the day, again.)
American Robin 1479
Northern Mockingbird 11
Brown Thrasher 1 (Gilmore Ponds--"Big Pond" area)
European Starling 21,657 (Everywhere. We would have had unpardonable
numbers had we spent time trolling up and down Routes 4 and 747, a locality
I'm going to nominate as an Ohio Audubon Unimportant Bird Area this winter.)
American Pipit 6 (Along Great Miami below the Fitton Center)
Cedar Waxwing 1 (Phew! That's one lonely waxwing!)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5 (Rentschler and Camp Campbell Gard again saved the
day.)
Eastern Towhee 8
American Tree Sparrow 157
Field Sparrow 4 (Near Forest Run Preserve)
Savannah Sparrow 2 (Ditto... this area produced some good sparrow numbers,
according to Sam Fitton...)
Fox Sparrow 5 (Pretty good for this count.)
Song Sparrow 208
Swamp Sparrow 20
White-throated Sparrow 227
White-crowned Sparrow 13
Dark-eyed Junco 90
Lapland Longspur 5 (multiple sites, including Union Center Blvd., a fly-over
bird at Gilmore Ponds, and 2 at Miller Brewery. An excellent year for this
species on our count.)
Snow Bunting 20 (Miller Brewery, Trenton.)
Northern Cardinal 180
Red-winged Blackbird 24
Common Grackle 45
Brown-headed Cowbird 40
House Finch 39
American Goldfinch 189
House Sparrow 82
Count Week Birds: 150 Sandhill Cranes and 1 Eastern Phoebe. The cranes were
seen in two flocks on Thursday and Friday in West Chester and Hamilton; the
phoebe was seen on Friday at Joyce Park.
The mix of relatively low water levels on the Great Miami, frozen ponds,
snow cover, and yet relatively warm weather seems to have been the magic
ticket this year, species wise. But as noted, above, a lot of the waterfowl
were *barely* there.
So it was an interesting mix of waterfowl and the "half-hardy" winter birds.
Wilson's Snipe is a strange miss, given the open muddy edges along the Great
Miami River and some suitable areas elsewhere, particularly in the
disappearing micro habitats of Union Center Blvd wastelands. We also missed
Eastern
Meadowlark and Rusty Blackbird. But other than that, we got about everything
one would expect for our circle, which is all you can ask, really. Too bad
the
Anna's Hummingbird in West Chester is outside the count circle.
On a depressing note, a number of "good" birds (as if any are really *that*
bad, comparatively) were from places that will probably be gone soon--the
Longspurs at Union Center Blvd are not likely to be seen there again; the
sparrows at the retention basin by the new development bordering right up
against Forest Run Preserve in Ross might be some of the last we find there
as this area develops more. Port Union Wetlands and even Gilmore Ponds are
being squeezed more and more each year by new roads or wider roads and new
warehouses. Each year there's a little less decent habitat in the count
circle. But lots of starlings. So at least we've got that going for us.
Thanks to everyone who helped out. I really appreciate all your help, and I
hope you had a fun day in the field. So far, the reports have all been
positive. Everyone seemed to have had a nice day.
Take care,
---Mike Busam
West Chester, OH
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