FEBRUARY 06, 2022 - OTTAWA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE MONTHLY CENSUS.
ROUTES: East and West sides (except where drifting snow made it inaccessible) and Western Prairies in the morning; 
Auto Tour area in the afternoon, except where snowdrifts turned us back.
TIME: 7:45am - 12:00pm; 1:00pm - 4:10pm  TEMP.: 17F ~ 31F  COND.: Cold and sunny with blue skies; winds south
and steady all day at 5-15mph; snow cover about 4-inches to 6-inches, except where drifted; all impoundments, canals,
and ditches frozen; very little open water - one open lead at Metzger Marsh, one open lead at the Crane Creek mudflats,
and a large open lead in Lake Erie, but at least a half-mile (or more?) out.
OBS. EAST: Jim Koppin, Jim Reyda, Al & Betty Schlecht. OBS. WEST: Mary Appold (sic?), Katie Clink, Donna Kuhn,
George Novosel, Chris Pierce.  OBS. WEST PRAIRIES: Douglas W. Vogus.
OBS. AFTERNOON: Jim Koppin, Jim Reyda, Douglas W. Vogus.

I. MAMMALS: 8 SPECIES.
  1. Eastern Cottontail - 5
  2. Eastern Fox Squirrel - 6
  3. Meadow Vole - 1
  4. Common Muskrat - 1
  5. Coyote - 2  (one seen on Lake Erie & one heard howling in field south of Butternut Woods - Tied Census High from 03/2008, 01/2018, 02/2018 & 02/2020)
  6. Common Raccoon - 1
  7. Northern River Otter - 1  (First February Record on Census & Tied Census High from 11/2010)
  8. White-tailed Deer - 11 (does)

II. BIRDS: 56 SPECIES, 3,270 TOTAL BIRDS.
  1. Canada Goose - 227
  2. Mute Swan - 2
  3. Trumpeter Swan - 39
  4. Tundra Swan - 1,540
  5. Canvasback - 1
  6. Redhead - 60
  7. Lesser Scaup - 3
  8. Common Goldeneye - 1
  9. Common Merganser - 82
  10. Mourning Dove - 34
  11. Sandhill Crane - 30
  12. Ring-billed Gull - 68
  13. Herring Gull - 6
  14. Great Blue Heron - 21  (plus one dead on the canal ice being scavenged by a Red-tailed Hawk)
  15. Northern Harrier - 5
  16. Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
  17. Cooper's Hawk - 1
  18. Bald Eagle - 14 (6 adult,8 immature)
  19. Red-tailed Hawk - 6
  20. Rough-legged Hawk - 1 (dark morph)  (same bird since December?)
  21. Great Horned Owl - 3  (one nesting on abandoned eagle nest)
  22. Long-eared Owl - 1
  23. Red-headed Woodpecker - 1  (adult in Butternut Woods)
  24. Red-bellied Woodpecker - 6
  25. Downy Woodpecker - 11
  26. Hairy Woodpecker - 2
  27. Northern Flicker - 1
  28. American Kestrel - 4
  29. Northern Shrike - 1
  30. Blue Jay - 22
  31. American Crow - 2
  32. Horned Lark - 20
  33. Black-capped Chickadee - 4
  34. Tufted Titmouse - 1
  35. White-breasted Nuthatch - 4
  36. Brown Creeper - 1
  37. Winter Wren - 2
  38. Carolina Wren - 2
  39. American Robin - 9
  40. European Starling - 42
  41. House Sparrow - 41
  42. Evening Grosbeak - 1  (solo fly-over headed north over Grimm Prairie - Third February Record on Census)
  43. House Finch - 6
  44. American Goldfinch - 9
  45. American Tree Sparrow - 217
  46. Dark-eyed Junco - 13
  47. White-throated Sparrow - 1
  48. Savannah Sparrow - 3  (plus one dead - two together along Krause Rd., one under the feeder at the house on corner of Krause Rd. & Stange Rd.; one dead at the observation deck on Stange Rd.)
  49. Song Sparrow - 22
  50. Swamp Sparrow - 6
  51. Eastern Meadowlark - 1
  52. Red-winged Blackbird - 339
  53. Brown-headed Cowbird - 16
  54. Rusty Blackbird - 56
  55. Common Grackle - 229
  56. Northern Cardinal - 29

Compiler: Douglas W. Vogus - Akron, Ohio.
______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]