With some real winter weather coming up, I've been looking at some Ohio winter bird records from the 1930s. Lawrence Hicks was the foremost authority of the day on our birdlife. He published "A Statistical Survey of Ohio Winter Bird Life" in the Ohio Journal of Science in 1933 (it's on the Web, along with most OJS material, at https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/handle/1811/946 ). This article is an analysis of the first three decades of what we now call Christmas Bird Counts, sponsored during the time by Bird Lore magazine. Listing 133 species for these censuses, omitting a few others whose identity was in question, he also includes a list of 29 others recorded outside the Christmas season over the history of Ohio records. He mentions some factors that lead to misleading estimations of the numbers and variety of birds (examples: there are probably more screech owls in Ohio in winter than kestrels, but they are harder to detect; flocking species tend to be over-represented, as are species with loud, frequent, and diagnostic vocalizations, etc.). Another confounding factor he mentions is historical changes in populations of certain species. This part of the paper most interests us today, in part because of the additional 75 years of history that have passed. There follow some numbers, and interpretations he offers, that may intrigue a reader in 2007. Here are the top ten species, in terms of numbers of individuals reported, over the first 32 years of Ohio counts: 1. American crow (56,841 individuals reported) 2. American tree sparrow (42,153) 3. European starling (15,782) 4. Dark-eyed junco (15,236) 5. Song sparrow (8,119) 6. Northern cardinal (7,086) 7. Tufted titmouse (6,776) 8. Northern bobwhite (6,767) 9. Black-capped chickadee (5,050) 10. White-breasted nuthatch (4,695) The crow as #1 (about one-fourth of all birds reported were crows) is surprising to us today, especially since only 64.9% of these counts reported any at all. The tree sparrow, reported on 91.5% of the counts and constituting almost a fifth of all birds reported, ranks far higher than today. That the starling should be only third is not so surprising, since the first CBC report of an Ohio starling did not come until 1920. A third surprise, though, is certainly the high rank of the bobwhite. There were ten species with only one individual reported over these 32 years: white-winged scoter, vesper sparrow, orange-crowned warbler, pine grosbeak, indigo bunting, golden eagle, Franklin's gull, brown thrasher, peregrine falcon, and chipping sparrow. Here, from a modern compilation are Ohio's top ten species, in numbers of individuals counted, for the entire period 1900-2005: 1. European starling (the number is close to 10 million now) 2. Ring-billed gull 3. Common grackle 4. House sparrow 5. Canada goose 6. American crow 7. Mallard 8. Herring gull 9. Bonaparte's gull 10. Mourning dove. I invite readers to contemplate these two lists. Why have large water-loving species, for example, grown so much in numbers reported? As for the old leaders, the tree sparrow is now #13, junco is #11, song sparrow #18, cardinal #12, titmouse #23, bobwhite #44, black-capped chickadee #28, and the nuthatch #30. Hicks had a special interest in Ohio's wintering birds, and published a number of papers on the subject. I'll just mention one other, "An annotated check list of all birds recorded in Ohio in winter," from an Ohio Department of Agriculture Bulletin in 1935 (#2, pp. 59-66). Here he briefly annotates 159 species he accepts to the Ohio winter list, and without comment I offer below some selections that readers might find interesting 72 years later. Most of his annotations remain accurate for the present day, but these are thought-provoking. Tundra swan---"Unknown in winter except along the Lake Erie shore of northeastern Ohio during the winter of 1931-1932." Canada goose---"Rather rare but winters regularly, especially in several localities in W. and So. Ohio." Greater scaup---"Should occur as a rare winter resident but has never been positively identified." Red-breasted merganser---"Very rare or accidental but may occur on open water." Northern harrier---"Everywhere common to abundant as a winter resident, being exceeded in numbers only by the Sparrow Hawk. More generally distributed in the western half of Ohio." Peregrine falcon---"Quite rare in winter. More frequent in late January following the first northward movement of waterfowl." Gray partridge---"A common to very abundant resident in the northwestern fourth of Ohio. Elsewhere rare or absent except for a few scattered groups." Great black-backed gull---"Very rare winter visitor along the Lake Erie shore and occasionally inland." Bewick's wren---"Very rare or absent in northern Ohio, rare in central Ohio and uncommon in southern Ohio. Local." Brown thrasher---"Accidental. One individual wintered at Columbus, 1929-1930." Northern mockingbird---"Very rare or absent in northern Ohio. Uncommon to rare or absent in central Ohio. Rare to common in southern Ohio. Local." Wood thrush---"Accidental. One individual wintered in Columbus in 1928-1929." American pipit---"Absent in northern Ohio. Very rare in southern Ohio." Northern cardinal---"Common to abundant resident, more common to the south and uncommon to rare in parts of northeastern Ohio." I hope all this typing will inspire at least a few readers to think these phenomena over and perhaps offer some interpretations for discussion. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]