Franklin County birders--most of them thus far unknowingly--have been
accumulating a 2011 bird list for the county. Our communal Franklin
County January list stands at 99 species, as far as I know.
        Lasting snow cover and less open water this winter prevented us from
finding more, but we should pick up some missing species later:
waterfowl (greater white-fronted goose, pintail, canvasback, any scaup
or scoter, ruddy duck), owls (barn, long-eared, n. saw-whet), Am. pipit.
Or maybe we can pick up some of these now---did anyone see any of these
in Franklin County last month?? If so, please let me know, with date and
location. I think we already have everything that's been posted on
ohio-birds and other mailing lists, and just one bird would give us 100...
        We'll put our list on the Columbus Audubon site later when migration is
well started, then update it often. With the help of observers, nearly
all the commoner winter birds whose names appear above should be added
to our list in the next couple of months, and next December we should
add a few more. We'll end up with a total of more than 200, probably
more than 250. The historical county list now stands at 330 spp. Maybe
better numbers can be found in another Ohio county this year; I toss
down the gauntlet.
        Please contribute any sighting you may have from last month in the list
of species above, plus any rarities of course. Locations on private
property will not be made public without permission, but we need all the
species we can get.
        This is an experiment in a year list that should be more meaningful
than a personal one, and everyone's participation is urged. We won't be
hogging this state channel much more often before we start a dynamic
list on the CAS site, probably in March when things start to heat up.
Many thanks,
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]