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.
- Eastern Cottontail - 5
- Eastern Fox Squirrel - 6
- Meadow Vole - 1
- Common Muskrat - 1
- 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)
- Common Raccoon - 1
- Northern River Otter - 1 (First February Record on Census & Tied Census High from 11/2010)
- White-tailed Deer - 11 (does)
II. BIRDS: 56 SPECIES, 3,270 TOTAL BIRDS.
- Canada Goose - 227
- Mute Swan - 2
- Trumpeter Swan - 39
- Tundra Swan - 1,540
- Canvasback - 1
- Redhead - 60
- Lesser Scaup - 3
- Common Goldeneye - 1
- Common Merganser - 82
- Mourning Dove - 34
- Sandhill Crane - 30
- Ring-billed Gull - 68
- Herring Gull - 6
- Great Blue Heron - 21 (plus one dead on the canal ice being scavenged by a Red-tailed Hawk)
- Northern Harrier - 5
- Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
- Cooper's Hawk - 1
- Bald Eagle - 14 (6 adult,8 immature)
- Red-tailed Hawk - 6
- Rough-legged Hawk - 1 (dark morph) (same bird since December?)
- Great Horned Owl - 3 (one nesting on abandoned eagle nest)
- Long-eared Owl - 1
- Red-headed Woodpecker - 1 (adult in Butternut Woods)
- Red-bellied Woodpecker - 6
- Downy Woodpecker - 11
- Hairy Woodpecker - 2
- Northern Flicker - 1
- American Kestrel - 4
- Northern Shrike - 1
- Blue Jay - 22
- American Crow - 2
- Horned Lark - 20
- Black-capped Chickadee - 4
- Tufted Titmouse - 1
- White-breasted Nuthatch - 4
- Brown Creeper - 1
- Winter Wren - 2
- Carolina Wren - 2
- American Robin - 9
- European Starling - 42
- House Sparrow - 41
- Evening Grosbeak - 1 (solo fly-over headed north over Grimm Prairie - Third February Record on Census)
- House Finch - 6
- American Goldfinch - 9
- American Tree Sparrow - 217
- Dark-eyed Junco - 13
- White-throated Sparrow - 1
- 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.)
- Song Sparrow - 22
- Swamp Sparrow - 6
- Eastern Meadowlark - 1
- Red-winged Blackbird - 339
- Brown-headed Cowbird - 16
- Rusty Blackbird - 56
- Common Grackle - 229
- Northern Cardinal - 29
Compiler: Douglas W. Vogus - Akron, Ohio.
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